House team wary of National trip

Tim Vaughan admits his John Smith’s Grand National hope Stewarts House has questions to answer on the stamina front.

Vaughan acquired the 10-year-old from County Kildare handler Arthur Moore over the summer and has already saddled him to win twice in three starts so far.

He won a Listed race at Newton Abbot last August before supplementing that effort with a second place at Cheltenham’s Open meeting in November, but his finest hour came when winning the Grand Sefton Chase over the National fences last December.

The trainer said: “At the moment it’s all systems go with Stewarts House and the Grand National is very much the plan. We were going to take him to Cheltenham but we have decided to go straight to Aintree now.

“When he won at Newton Abbot, we were hoping he was potentially well handicapped and after that the Grand Sefton was always the race we had in the back of our mind.

“However, going there and winning it is a different story – he has surprised us with how hardy and tough he is. He owes us absolutely nothing and if we could get a nice run out him in the Grand National, it would be a dream come true for the owners.

“I think he ticks all the right boxes. The only negative about him is the trip and for me that is the one question we don’t really know. Then again, how many people genuinely do know if their horse will stay?

“He has a perfect racing weight and I think he should be competitive off his mark of 142. He won at Aintree off a mark of 134 and I believe he is an 8lb better horse on better ground because his wind has always been an issue.

“Aidan Coleman said his wind was bad all the way during the Grand Sefton, so you would like to think he would be a better horse when he can breathe better.”

Stewarts House has 10st 5lb in the April 14 feature while Vaughan could also saddle Postmaster and believes that horse may scrape into the race off a weight of 10st 2lb.