Charlie Longsdon will have a serious bargain on his hands if Palypso De Creek runs well in Saturday’s John Smith’s Grand National, and is praying it will be a case of a dream come true.
"He was bought for us last year by Anthony Bromley [of Highflyer Bloodstock] with the specific intention of being a Grand National horse. I wouldn’t want to say exactly what we paid, but he wasn’t an expensive purchase - he was less than £50,000," the trainer said today.
Palypso De Creek’s first outing for his new owner Alan Halsall was in a three-mile novices’ hurdle at Towcester - on ground that was better than he was used to in France - and he stayed on well up the Towcester hill, a win that pleased connections.
His second outing was over the National fences in the totesport.com Becher Handicap Chase in November, when he was fourth behind Vic Venturi, receiving a stone from the Irish-trained horse. They meet on the same terms in the John Smith’s Grand National.
"We were quite surprised that day because all Palypso de Creek does is stay. But between the second-last and the last he lost about 10 lengths, then after the last he ran on again,” said Longsdon.
Palypso’s de Creek’s third outing in the UK was in the Peter Marsh Chase at Haydock in January, when he went down by two and three quarter lengths to Our Vic in heavy ground, earning a Racing Post rating of 146 - his official rating for the John Smith’s Grand National is 140.
Connections chose the Pertemps Final over hurdles at the Cheltenham Festival for the horse’s final race before the John Smith’s Grand National. “I didn’t want to give him a hard race in the Kim Muir off 11st 12lb. We wanted to use Cheltenham as a stepping stone. I think, though, that the ground was too quick for him and he didn’t quite let himself down," Longsdon remarked.
"Everything has gone according to plan since Cheltenham. We haven’t done a lot with him - it’s more a case of ticking him over," said Longsdon, who acknowledged that, if the horse does produce any improvement on his Haydock run, the 50/1 shot [with totesport] must have some sort of chance.
"It’s more like praying he will run well though," he added of the seven-year-old.
