High Forty castled his rivals on Saturday to further enhance the prospects of Grand National masters Brian and Shane Anderton adding to the family record in next weekend’s feature jumping event at Riccarton.
The dour nine-year-old ensured high fives in the birdcage after he produced a supreme staying performance under the topweight of 70kg to land the NZI Koral Steeplechase.
“With another year on him he’s got stronger,” he said. “He’ll get a big weight, but the way he’s handled it today there’s no reason why he can’t do it again.”
The Andertons have already won three Grand Nationals with Bymai (1984), Lord Venture (1988) and Noble Express (1994) and as the winner of five of his last six starts, High Forty is in prime form to add his name to the honours board.“He won’t need to do much during the week and he’ll be back next Saturday for another crack,” Shane Anderton said.
High Forty was ridden patiently toward the back of the Koral field by Michael Mitchell before they picked up ground and loomed into serious contention across the top.They led over the final two flights and drew clear to beat the Kevin Myers-trained Get Flash by four and a half lengths with the runner-up’s stablemate Snodroptwinkletoes a further two lengths back in third.
“He’s been a fantastic find and the ground was perfect for him,” Mitchell said. “He was very fluent today and very impressive. All I had to do was to bide my time and wait for the runs.”
