Sean Flanagan’s William Hill blog: Vanillier in grand form ahead of Aintree

Vanillier

Vanillier ran at the Dublin Racing Festival on his previous run, and he’s taken the same route as he did last year, where he fell at Leopardstown. Despite coming 15th this time round I came away from the race content enough. He’s a very hard horse to get fit, and I think the renewal of the Bobbyjo Chase this year was a much more superior race than it was last year, and we’ve finished second again, all be it a little further than the year before. I think he’s ran a better race this year, and he seems to be in a really good place. I’m really looking forward to it, I was delighted with him on Sunday in the Bobbyjo.

Cheltenham

Having a winner at Cheltenham Festival is absolutely magical, there’s no other way to describe it. I was lucky enough to win the Boodles for Noel Meade on board Jeff Kidder, who was an 80/1 shot. The definitive factor of your whole riding career is whether or not you had a Cheltenham Festival winner or whether or not you got round the Grand National. I’ve only had the one Cheltenham Festival winner so far, but it is the defining point in my career. There have been some amazing jockeys in the past that never got the opportunity to ride a winner round Cheltenham at the Festival.

I think that Sandor Clegane is massively over-priced for the Brown Advisory, and he actually has a very big chance. I’ve never had the opportunity to ride him in a race, he’s obviously Sean O’Keeffe’s ride. I did have the opportunity to school him a couple of weeks ago, but Sean is back now, so he will ride him at Cheltenham. I was very impressed with his reappearance at Naas, after his wind operation, he ran a couple of pounds higher than he had been. He loves it round Cheltenham and he didn’t have much luck in the Albert Bartlett last year, he jumps a fence really nicely and I wouldn’t be surprised if this lad comes underneath the radar to cause an upset.