Liberty Counsel Wins Ladbrokes Irish Grand National Chase
Six of the last 10 winners of the Easter marathon have been won by horses returned at 20/1 or bigger but none boasted a starting price as large as Dot Love's charge who was called home at 50/1.
The 10-year-old mare was last seen finishing down the field in the Kim Muir Chase at the Cheltenham Festival, so it was no surprise to see her sent off at big odds for this fiercely competitive contest.Liberty Counsel was settled in the middle of the pack for the majority of the three-mile-five-furlong journey, but some fine leaps down the back straight brought her into contention. There was little to choose between her and Away We Go, ridden by Paul Townend, when jumping the final obstacle but she kept pulling out more for her conditional jockey and scored by half a length to deny Willie Mullins a first Irish Grand National.Home Farm finished third and Sweeney Tunes fourth.Dalton said: "The going was a big help to her. I thought if she was fifth or sixth it would have been a great run, but she's improving all the time. I knew she'd stay right to the line - she winged the last and kept finding more."National Hero Marigo RetiredDual-Scottish Grand National hero Merigo has been retired with immediate effect and will not feature among the entries which close at lunchtime today (Tuesday) for this year's Coral-sponsored marathon on April 20.The twelve-year-old, who carried the colours of Ray and Anita Green to glory in the Ayr showpiece in 2010 and 2012 under his owners' son-in-law Timmy Murphy, has failed to show any of his zest this season including when partnered in an after-racing spin at Musselburgh on Sunday by his Dumfriesshire trainer Andrew Parker. Though a real course specialist at Scotland's premier venue where he gained five of his seven wins, he also won the 2008 Betdaq The Betting Exchange Handicap Chase at Doncaster as well as gaining a thrilling victory in the totesport.com Eider Chase at Newcastle the following February. Parker, who in 2010 became the first Scottish-based trainer to land the SGN for 28 years, said: "Though he looks well enough in himself, the old sparkle isn't there anymore even though this is normally his time of year. It was same in the gallop we did at Musselburgh and the decision to call it a day was taken after a discussion with myself and Mr Green on Monday morning.Aintree Latest; Course WateringAintree has started watering its three tracks ahead of the John Smith's Grand National meeting, which begins on Thursday. With little rainfall forecast during the week, course officials on Merseyside are striving to maintain perfect underfoot conditions for the big one on Saturday.Andrew Tulloch, regional head of Racing North West and Aintree clerk of the course, said: "We started watering (on Sunday) at 10am and everything has been watered, the Mildmay, Hurdle and Grand National courses."By the end of today, all the courses will have received one round of watering of between three and seven millimetres."We will reassess the situation as the week goes on and water as necessary to maintain the going as just on the soft side of good on the Mildmay and Hurdle courses."We are aiming for good to soft, good in places or good, good to soft in places on the Grand National course. Temperatures are not expected to get up to more than 8C or 9C this week so there will be little evaporation and we are aiming to maintain the going as it is now."The soil temperature last year was 9C, while this year it has reached just 5C. The wind will dry the top surface but underneath the ground is quite moist. There is no meaningful amount of rain forecast between now and Saturday - one millimetre at the most, plus maybe a few wintry showers."
