Mon Mome For Repeat National Bid

Unlike many Grand National winners whose form can tail off in the season after their big victory, 2009 hero Mon Mome has looked in good shape in recent months and will go to Aintree with a serious chance of repeating his famous success, writes Elliot Slater.

Venetia Williams‘ ten-year-old rightly received tremendous praise and publicity following his defeat of previous winner Comply Or Die last April and spent much of the summer greeting visitors to his stables and making the obligatory personal appearances. The win was even more remarkable given the horse started the race at 100/1 in the Aintree betting.

After running well for a long way before eventually pulling up in Denman’s Hennessy romp at Newbury in November on his seasonal reappearance, Mon Mome was switched to hurdles and ran a blinder to be third in a Grade 2 event at Cheltenham just before the turn of the year. His subsequent run to finish fourth in Haydock’s Peter Marsh Chase under top weight proved he is at least as good as last year.

With an entry in the Blue Square Gold Cup back at Haydock in mid-February and then a possible spin in the Cheltenham Gold Cup before his return visit to Aintree, Mon Mome looks capable of going very close again in the four-and-a-half mile marathon, assuming the handicapper doesn’t go too overboard.

Mon Mome is a 25/1 chance to score back-to-back wins at Aintree, something that has not been achieved since the greatest of Grand National horses Red Rum did it in 1974. It would not be the least bit surprising to see the French-bred gelding brought into the race quietly on the second circuit – just as he was last year – before setting sail for home between the final two fences.