Nicholls' Weekend Runners: The Timeform Preview

With Tonic Mellysse's easy win at the track yesterday serving as an aperitif, will the Nicholls yard find themselves enjoying the main course on Saturday when The Minack and Neptune Collonges line up in the Scottish Grand National at Ayr?

Sanctuaire is the only other horse to represent Nicholls this weekend and he goes in the Scottish Champion Hurdle (14:50). First the positives; Sanctuaire was very impressive when a facile winner of the Fred Winter handicap at the Cheltenham Festival last year, looking as though he could scale great heights as hurdler, and he's due to receive a stone and more from Mille Chief and Overturn, both of whom disappointed last time out. As for the negatives; Sanctuaire is a very free-going sort who has beaten only one horse home in his last two starts and fell on his seasonal debut. What's more, he has to give weight to a progressive horse in Via Galilei, who comes into the race on the back of four very solid efforts in top handicaps. There's no doubt the negatives outweigh the positives at this stage in Sanctuaire's racing career and he's going to have to be right back to his best if he's to emulate Fadalko, who won the race for the yard in 1999.

Like the Scottish Champion Hurdle, Nicholls has just a single victory in the Scottish National (15:25) to his name, which came courtesy of Belmont King in 1995. The winning jockey that day, however, was Tony McCoy and he again teams up with the trainer, taking the mount on Neptune Collonges. Never able to go the pace and jumping poorly when eighth in the Gold Cup last time, the trainer will be hoping for an effort much more akin to his previous run, when producing a fine front-running display to take the Argento Chase at Cheltenham in January. However, Neptune Collonges has to give a vast amount of weight to all his rivals and, for all that 22 are running from out of the handicap, he's got a lot on his plate, with the rain that would increase his chance looking highly unlikely to materialise.

With Neptune Collonges looking to face a very stiff task, the lightly raced The Minack looks the yard's best chance of winning the race this year. The Minack had won his first two starts this season before a terrible mistake cost him behind Master Of The Hall in the Reynoldstown at Ascot last time, for all that he was given time to recover and wasn't beaten that far in the end. The fact that he's been given a two-month break suggests there may have been other factors at work with that performance, however, and it's interesting to see him pitched into a race such as this, especially considering his dam won the Irish equivalent in 1993. With Ruby Walsh in the saddle and improvement looking likely, The Minack has to be considered a strong challenger to market principals Chicago Grey and Beshabar.

Timeform / 15 Apr 2011