Lucinda Russell’s William Hill blog: Grand National is Corach Rambler’s main aim

Stable star updates

In hindsight, we might have made a bit of an error running Giovinco quite as quickly as we did at Kempton. There was no hiding place and the rate the French horse went just put our lad out of his comfort zone a touch. It all just happened a bit quick at this stage of his career but we’re not giving up on him.

I’d quite like to run him before Cheltenham and I do wonder if a step back in trip might be the answer. So, with that in mind, there’s the two-and-a-half-mile handicap chase on Trials Day which he could go to or to Sandown for the Scilly Isles in early February. I don’t see going back in trip as a problem to him and I wouldn’t rule out us going down that route at Cheltenham either.

Ahoy Senor is in great form and has fully recovered from his sore heel after Newbury. We’ve sorted that out and he’s been doing really well at home since. The aim looks the Cotswold Chase at Cheltenham and, if we don’t go there, we’ll look at the Denman Chase at Newbury – a track we know he goes well at. The race at Lingfield [Fleur De Lys Chase] could have been an option but I’m not keen on running him on very heavy ground.

Providing one of those races goes well, it will most likely be the Gold Cup next. He has got an entry in the Ryanair and we could look at that, but I’d be leaning towards the Gold Cup at this stage.

Corach Rambler is in flying form and he seems very well in himself. He’ll go straight to the Gold Cup and we’ll look to get a racecourse gallop into him before that like we did last year.

Everyone knows how much I love him and it would be very special if he could be competitive in another Grand National. Over Christmas we watched back the race last year and it was amazing how much he loved it and well he jumped. That is the main target and, while I don’t like to call the Gold Cup a prep, that’s sort of what we’re treating it as.

He’ll have to carry so much weight in the Ultima and we just feel the Gold Cup will be a better race for him. It would be amazing if he could run well in that which would set him up perfectly for Aintree.

I also wanted to give Apple Away a mention. She’s a bit of a dark horse and I’m quietly confident she might run quite well in the Brown Advisory. She’ll head to Warwick next weekend and I’ve been really happy with her at home since her last run.

Newcastle, Saturday 

We’ve got four runners on Saturday at Newcastle but the one to keep an eye on is Two Auld Pals (1.40pm). He’s one of those horses that I’m sure will be a good horse. I can’t really tell you why, but his physique, attitude and approach to life are in line with really good horses. I like him a lot and I expect him to be very competitive.