grand national 2011 /

Fontaine Team Hoping Haydock National Trial Survives the Elements
08/02/11

North Yorkshire handler Malcolm Jefferson certainly isn't alone in feeling particularly frustrated by the stop-start nature of the current National Hunt season and is desperately hoping that the Totesport.com Grand National Trial at Haydock on February 19 goes ahead allowing his highly progressive stayer King Fontaine to have an outing, writes Elliot Slater.

King Fontaine
© Grossick Racing Photography

Trainers in the north, in particular, have suffered a massive number of abandoned fixtures making life very difficult when they have to build a horse up to peak fitness only for the race to disappear. They then have to let the horse down before building him back up again, a process than can only be done so many times during a campaign before the effects start to show. This has been very much the case for King Fontaine, the Trevor Hemmings-owned charge having now been denied a run four times because of the elements, most recently at Doncaster and anyone keeping an eye on the Grand National betting odds must bear this in mind.

Jefferson is now building his stable star back up again for a crack at the significant Haydock National Trial as he bids to extend the unbeaten run of the highly progressive King's Theatre gelding to five wins in a row. His winning sequence began in April last year with a win in Wetherby novice chase, followed later that month by victory in a novices handicap chase at Market Rasen off a mark of 117. A 5lb rise failed to stop Graham lee's mount scoring at Haydock on his seasonal reappearance in battling fashion (beating Maktu by a head), before a highly impressive 11-length win back at the Lancashire track in November caused the handicapper to raise King Fontaine to a career-high mark of 142.

Generally on offer at 50/1 for the Grand National, those odds will surely tumble if the eight-year-old wins again at his beloved Haydock later this month.