It looks like AP McCoy will be denied a last run in the Scottish Grand National at Ayr on Saturday. The announcement that his ride Benvolio has been withdrawn from the race means that the soon to retire champion jockey will miss out of a final crack at a race he's only won once in his illustrious career, way back in 1997 on Paul Nichols-trained Belmont King.
McCoy, who will be crowned champion jockey for the 20th successive time at Sandown next Saturday, was limited in his options due to weight allocations but seemed happy to have been offered the Nicholls-trained 16-1 shot Benvolio, who looked impressive in a tough second-place finish at the Welsh Grand National in December.
The withdrawal prevents McCoy from going up against his boss JP McManus who recently purchased current favourite Gallant Oscar but couldn't give McCoy the ride because the horse is too low in the weights for the champion jockey. Instead that honour goes to Paul Carberry.
Gallant Oscar is 9-1 favourite for the Scottish Grand National with Betfair after missing the cut for Aintree. Prior to that the nine-year-old managed a creditable third place behind The Druids Nephew in a hard fought Ultra Business Solutions Handicap Chase at Cheltenham. The announcement that McManus had snapped up Gallant Oscar came late on Wednesday when a note of caution was sounded by McManus' race manager Frank Berry, who told The Irish Field “the horse won't run at all if the ground dries out too much. It's fine at the moment but it is drying.”
If the Tony Martin-trained horse can live up to his billing as favourite he will be the first Irish-trained winner of the Scottish National for 146 years.
