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Caldwell Potter put in a superb round of jumping to claim victory in the Huyton Asphalt Franny Blennerhassett Memorial Mildmay Novices’ Chase on day two of the Grand National meeting at Aintree.
A winner at the Cheltenham Festival, Paul Nicholls‘ high-profile grey was ridden by Harry Cobden as the 11-4 joint-favourite for the Grade One event alongside Ben Pauling‘s Handstands, who lost his chance when severely hampered by the fall of Dancing City.
Up front, Caldwell Potter was left to lock horns with Jordans in the final stages, but yet another neat and quick jump at the last saw him pull away to prevail in good style, by a length and a quarter.
Paul Nicholls
Nicholls said: “I enjoyed that. He jumped brilliantly on ground that we were a little bit worried about, but I actually think he wants decent ground the way he moves.
“We’ve had a few headaches with his feet and they’ve been a nightmare for the last 10 days. It’s like someone getting a new pair of shoes and them not fitting properly, you have to bed them in and we’ve got on top of that now hopefully and he’s a super, super horse.
“He’s taken a huge step forward since Windsor (in January) and we soon worked out two miles is not his trip. I can’t tell you what a different horse he is from that day to now. He floats and jumps and jumping won the day for him there today.”
Bought out of Gordon Elliott’s yard last year for €740,000, many had Caldwell Potter down as an expensive flop following successive winter defeats.
However, his handicap success at Cheltenham silenced a few doubters and having now seen his charge graduate to Grade One level on Merseyside in the colours of the late John Hales, with Sir Alex Ferguson one of those among the jubilant ownership group, Nicholls feels there is more to come.
More to Come
He added: “He’ll have a good summer and he can come back and you can look at races like the Betfair Chase and things like that. He needs to go left-handed, probably.
“Rome wasn’t built in a day, we’re learning about him all the time and it’s fantastic for these guys and John Hales up there, who put his money where his mouth is and got all his mates involved – he’s a cheap horse now!”
Cobden jumped off Caldwell Potter soon after the line, but the seven-year-old was eventually led into the winner’s enclosure.
The jockey told Racing TV: “He jumped brilliantly, he wasn’t in the same form as Cheltenham and I was on fumes for a long way out but I just managed to nurse him over the second-last and he was very brave at the last, winged it, and I think that sealed the deal for us. He’s a very tough horse.
“It was very hot and the thing to do when it’s like that is to get me off and the saddle off and get him in the horse cool down area. He’s been in there for five minutes and is now in the winner’s enclosure so he can get his round of applause.”
JJ Slevin
JJ Slevin was pleased with the performance of the runner-up Jordans, saying: “It was a very good run. It was a big call from Joseph (O’Brien) to run him but he’s run well.
“Hopefully he’s a Grade One horse for next season. It’s taken a very good horse to beat him today, who had also won at Cheltenham.”
Joe Tizzard said of The Changing Man back in third: “He’s run a lovely race. We’ve had a hell of a season, it’s a simple as that. He doesn’t know how to run a bad race.
“Next year is going to be so much fun. We rolled the dice a bit today and from the back of two out it looked like a long season had taken it’s toll. Every race he’s run in has been a big £100,000 handicap.
“He’s had a good season and we’ll aim for the Coral Gold Cup next year.”
