Lucinda Russell’s William Hill Blog: Corach Rambler has every chance

William Hill ambassador Lucinda Russell gives her reaction to Corach Rambler being given 11st 2lbs in the Grand National.

Corach Rambler

I’m pretty happy with him at 11st 2lbs, as long as the top weight, Hewick, stays in. I think that’s a very fair weight to take around there. If he takes to the fences as well as he did last year, we’ve got every chance.

I think it’s funny, you know, everyone keeps asking us trainers about whether our horses are where we want them to be at this stage. Every day we face worries that things are going to go wrong, but, at the moment, everything’s going well and if that continues to Aintree we should have him spot on.

We wanted to run him before Aintree, and it seems the right time to be doing it – he doesn’t go there [to the Gold Cup] with a lot of weight. We have entered him in the Ultima as well, but I think he would carry quite a lot of weight in that and I don’t want him to have a hard race. I know the Gold Cup is a very classy and a very intense race, but it should be the right fit for him.

As a trainer, I feel pressure in preparing any horse for the National and for any race – you just want it all to go well. But with him, when the tapes went up last year, I just started crying and it was like a release of all the tension and all the worry and just the anxiety that he was going to be okay, but I shouldn’t have worried, he was fine!

It’s just awe-inspiring to be able to say that I’ve won two Grand Nationals – if I could get a third, that would be amazing.