Cheltenham Festival Winner Galvin Eyed At Scottish National

Cheltenham Festival winner Galvin will swerve the Irish Grand National and his trainer Ian Ferguson has stated that the Scottish Grand National could now be a big target for the proven stayer.

The seven year old moved from Gordon Elliott to Ian Ferguson before the Cheltenham festival and with the National Hunt Chase at the Cheltenham festival being the aim all year long, they stuck with the plan.

The market moved around frequently before the race with Royal Pagaille taken out and horses like Next Destination and Escaria Ten added to the race to take on Galvin.

Having finished second at the 2020 Cheltenham festival behind Imperial Aura in the 2m4f Novices' Handicap, he went into the meeting having only run once since that second and it saw him get back to winning ways at Cheltenham over three miles.

Not being seeing since that run and being waited on at home, he gave a superb performance under a great ride by Jack Kennedy to sneak up the inside rail and take the event in the final stages.

With him showing that he will stay over a marathon trip, doing some of his best work towards the end of the race, the Scottish Grand National has now become a real option for the gelding.

(Credit ATR) “There’s a possibility he could run in the Scottish National, but definitely not the Irish, – it will come too soon,” said Ferguson.

“He’s been entered at Ayr, so we’ll see how he is between now and then. It looks to be coming up at the right time.

“We know he stays, he’s a good jumper and he acts on decent ground, so he has all the plusses to go there.

“The Irish National was just a bit soon, but he’s come home fine after the race, so we’ll play it by ear and see how we go.

“He’s a quality horse, he’s been a great servant to us all and Cheltenham worked out very well.

“The rating he’s got (154) is understandable, you don’t win five in a row and expect to get off lightly.”