Valirann – Ballymartintheatre (King’s Theatre)
Panda Boy was runner-up to Meetingofthewaters in the Paddy Power (replay below), finishing placed in that race for the second year running, and has form over further too, having finished a creditable fifth behind I Am Maximus in last year’s Irish Grand National. He’s from the first crop of the smart French stayer Valirann, along with a couple of good winners over fences in Britain this season, Forward Plan, winner of the Coral Trophy at Kempton and Knappers Hill, winner of the Rising Stars Novices’ Chase at Wincanton.
While none of the first three dams in Panda Boy’s pedigree raced themselves, they’ve all produced winning jumpers, including a Grade 1 winner at Aintree. That was Garruth, a half-brother to Panda Boy’s dam, who won the Sefton Novices’ Hurdle by a distance in desperate ground in 2001, the year when Red Marauder and Smarty were the only ones to complete without mishap in the National. Garruth didn’t reach the same heights over fences but confirmed he had plenty of stamina, including when narrowly beaten in the Southern National at Fontwell.
Mahler – Finnow Turkle (Turtle Island)
Coral Gold Cup runner-up Mahler Mission promises to stay beyond three and a quarter miles and he might already have done so had he not fallen two out in last season’s National Hunt Novices’ Chase at Cheltenham when looking the most likely winner. His sire Mahler was a smart stayer on the Flat, winning the Queen’s Vase and finishing placed in the St Leger and Melbourne Cup, and has sired a number of good staying chasers including The Big Dog who was a good fifth in last year’s Grand National after finishing third in the Welsh equivalent.
While Mahler Mission fetched just €4,200 as an unbroken three-year-old, he boasts a better jumping pedigree on his dam’s side than that would suggest with some stout stayers among his relatives. His unraced dam, for example, is a half-sister to Murchu, who won the Porterstown Handicap Chase over the Irish National course and distance, and to the useful if lazy Buachaill Alainn who won the Durham National at Sedgefield.
Also, Mahler Mission’s great grandam Goolagong was a half-sister to Lord Browndodd who was only a couple of lengths off the lead jumping the last in the 1978 Grand National before finishing seventh to Lucius.
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