One of the most fascinating contenders for the forthcoming John Smith's Grand National, the race that will have the British public and 600 million television viewers around the globe glued to their seats on April 9, is the ex-French chaser Or Noir De Somoza, now in the care of David Pipe, writes Elliot Slater.
Pipe knows a thing or two about winning 'the world's greatest steeplechase' having achieved the feat in 2008 with Comply Or Die, the horse who then went on to finish runner-up a year later and who will bid once again to gallop to glory at the Merseyside track, even at the advanced age of 12. Those with a Grand National free bet to place may think he's past it though.
Or Noir De Somoza is on his second stint under the care of the Pond House trainer having been sent to Pipe by his French owners a couple of seasons ago. He only had the one outing before returning to France, and that was when racing over a clearly inadequate two miles in the Grade 1 Victor Chandler Chase at Ascot in January 2009 where he finished fourth to the top class Master Minded, not surprisingly being outpaced from the second last.
A winner of 16 of his 32 starts in France, (three at Grade 1 level), the nine-year-old is an Auteuil specialist who appears on the balance of form to be ideally suited by soft ground. Such underfoot conditions are unlikely at Aintree with a mainly dry forecast expected to produce good ground, but big race jockey Scudamore is confident that his charge will run a very good race.
Currently on offer at odds of 50/1 to win Britain's most famous race for the French, Scudamore reports his mount to be in tremendous shape and believes him to have plenty of class and the right attitude to be in the thick of the action.
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