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Rain will help Goonyella as Jim Dreaper seeks win

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Jonathan Burke riding Goonyella

Jim Dreaper is sure Goonyella will stay the marathon trip but hopes for rain

  PICTURE: Getty Images  

 By Lee Mottershead 8:54AM 6 APR 2016 

IT IS 45 years since Jim Dreaper rode Black Secret to finish a close second in the Grand National and 44 years since he trained the same horse to take third. On Saturday, 28 years after his last involvement in the race, he will be back at Aintree and he insists significant rain would boost the prospects of Goonyella.

The Grand National track on Tuesday was good to soft, soft in places at the Canal Turn, but Dreaper fears British soft is not as soft as Irish soft, although it was on British soft that Goonyella romped to victory in last year’s Midlands Grand National at Uttoxeter.

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On much quicker ground one month later Jonathan Burke’s mount, a general 20-1 chance, filled the runner-up berth in the Scottish Grand National.

However, Dreaper is adamant that proper mud would boost the prospects of a nine-year-old who missed the cut for both the 2014 and 2015 runnings of the Aintree spectacular.

“What Aintree has been having is what I call apologetic rain,” said Dreaper. “It will be perfect ground but English good to soft is hardly soft at all by our standards. Really we need the ground to be soft to heavy to increase our chance.

“On quicker ground at Ayr he was chasing the whole way. Aintree isn’t the sort of place you’d want to be doing that. That’s the horse we have, though.”

‘Guaranteed to get the trip’

That horse does have Aintree experience, but it was not positive, as having unseated Burke at the first fence of the 2014 Becher Chase he finished an outpaced last of nine finishers on his return in December.

“We’d certainly have preferred him to have gone better on his previous visits,” admitted Dreaper.

“He did run well at Naas last time out though, and if he jumps well he has a good each-way chance. That chance will increase if the ground gets softer. You can also guarantee he’ll get the trip.”

Dreaper – whose most recent National runner, Hard Case, fell in 1988 – also recalled his near-miss in 1971 when Black Secret, then trained by his legendary father Tom, hit the front a furlong from home only to be narrowly collared by Specify.

“I nearly did it on Black Secret,” he said. “As a youngster I always had the ambition to ride in the National – not necessarily to win it – because it’s such a marvellous occasion. It was a great day. It was almost a perfect day.”

 

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