Gavin Cromwell
Gavin Cromwell’s William Hill blog: Grand National doesn’t feel right for Inothewayurthinkin this year
William Hill ambassador Gavin Cromwell reflects on Inothewayurthinkin’s Gold Cup success and offers the reasons behind his star chaser being scratched from the Grand National field.
Winning the Gold Cup with Inothewayurthinkin was obviously great and it’s still hard to put it into words really – it was a great day.
He’s come out of the race really well, he’s absolutely fine. We made the decision not to run him at Aintree in the Grand National for a few reasons. He’s only a seven-year-old, we’ve worked so hard on his jumping and it has improved all season, and we feel the right thing to do is not to run him in the Grand National.
His jumping has come on so far and we just feel that running him at Aintree this year could be the wrong thing to do.
We’re not going to make a final decision on what his plans are for the rest of the season just yet. He does have the option of Punchestown which is something we’ll consider over the next few weeks depending on how he is at home, then we’ll make the decision in due course.
Looking further down the line, we’ll just have to see how he progresses next season. He’s a young horse on the up and we’ll be hoping that he can be competitive in all the top races next season.
Cheltenham reaction and Grand National hopes
I was pleased with our team at Cheltenham, the horses all ran really well. Before the Gold Cup we’d had one winner, five seconds and three thirds with some very near misses. It was looking like it might have been a frustrating week, but winning the Gold Cup makes up for all those near misses.
Looking ahead to Aintree, the plan is definitely for both Stumptown and Vanillier to run in the Grand National after their performances in the Cross Country. Vanillier needs a few to come out but hopefully he’ll get his chance.
We’re hoping that Vanillier will be able to go having finished second in the race a couple of years ago. He’s off a nice weight and seems in good form. His last two runs have been really good so if he goes I should think he’d have a live chance.
