With the Boylesports Irish Grand National a few days away on Easter Monday, David Casey assistant trainer, with Willie Mullins gives an insight into the Carlow based team chances of lifting the Irish Grand national. With successes landed already in Aintree and Ayr who knows what the Mullins team can achieve come Easter Monday evening. In Casey’s  words; 

”We have to keep upping the standards at Closutton – if they drop there will be someone to take over from you If you let your standards drop at any stage, there will be someone there straight away to take over from you. All the trainers around us are getting better year by year. If they are, we have to as well, upping the standard, upping the quality of horses. We have to keep doing it. That is what Willie does better.

It is about even the smallest minor detail that could help to improve a horse to go from being a very good handicapper to a group race winner. He is always trying to learn, to improve, the facilities, the staff, the quality of horses. Nothing is overlooked.

I have been planning Willie’s runners for so long that I know what races will suit what horses

I know Willie’s system and the way he wants things and the way he wants them trained. If a horse wins one week, he is not going to run it again in a week’s time. So, I can use my own head, and plan away, looking at a race three weeks or a month down the road and see if it suits a particular horse. We are always planning a month or six weeks ahead.

I have been doing it so long I know a month down the road what races will suit what horses. Some have to wait a bit longer. For the very good horses their programme is set out well ahead because there are only so many races they can run in. With the others you look at the distance between the races, and look ahead to see what races are available and work back from there.

We would love to win the Irish Grand National again but we are not as well stocked as we have been in recent years.”

”We have won it a couple of times. I Am Maximus won it for us a couple of years ago. That was brilliant. We would love to win it again. The way the season has gone, a few of our biggest bullets will have been fired at Ayr and Aintree. So numerically we might not be as well stocked as we have been in other years. But we have a few nice horses going in there.

The maximum we will have at the moment is maybe two or three. High Class Hero will definitely run, as will Sa Majeste. Quai de Bourbon could also despite falling at Aintree, but it may be better to wait another week for Sandown.

High Class Hero and Sa Majeste will be the standouts.

Grangeclare West could go to the Bet365 in Sandown or he could go to the Punchestown Gold Cup. I imagine one of those two. He came out of Aintree great. He had a couple of lazy days when he didn’t do a lot. He ran a stormer at Liverpool.

High Class Hero is our best chance in the Irish Grand National

I have to go with High Class Hero. The trip will not be an issue. We have had really dry weather but that won’t be an issue for him either. He is only a novice, but he has plenty of experience from point to pointing as well. He is a pretty good jumper. A lot of the top weights will come out, so he will carry a lot of weight. That could be a negative, but he’ll be the top one of ours.”

With thanks David Casey’s quotes and if you want up to date prices see; Irish Grand National betting racing