Notre Pere To Run In Scottish national

AN HOUR after being taken out of the Powers Whiskey Irish Grand National, Notre Pere headed the 37 confirmations made on Monday for the Coral Scottish Grand National at Ayr.

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»Scottish National card Jim Dreaper's Coral Welsh National hero was taken out of the Fairyhouse equivalent at 11am on Monday due to the quickness of the ground, but now sits at the top of the handicap for Saturday's race after the withdrawal of Halcon Genelardais.

Notre Pere will carry 11st 11lb and the next in line, Miko de Beauchene, another former Welsh Nationa winner, has been allotted 11st 1lb.

Trainer of the former top weight Alan King left in West End Rocker and leading fancies Chief Dan George and Tricky Twister both stood their ground.

The Jimmy Moffatt-trained ante-post favourite Chief Dan George, who will be ridden by Paddy Aspell, is searchingfor a hat-trick having won comfortably at Catterick and Kelso on his last two outings. Moffatt said: "We are looking forward to Saturday, it is nice to be going into a big race with a horse with a chance, it is a big week for the stable. "Chief Dan George is very well. He is in great form, we have freshened him up and he is like a bull and raring to go. He certainly deserves to take his chance in a big one like this and I hope we won't be disappointed, we can do no more than get him there fit and well and then it is down to him.

Moffatt added: "The race has been the plan all along for him, we just wanted to get a couple of chases into him for experience and so far everything has worked out as we wanted.

"Hopefully we get him there in one piece and he shows his stuff. We're getting very excited about it but there are are lot of top-class horses in the race and we've plentyto do."
Jeremy Scott is looking forward to running Gone To Lunch as long as he is happy with the ground conditions.

The nine-year-old would be on a retrieval mission having been pulled up in the RSA Chase at Cheltenham after stumbling at the ninth fence. He had notched up a hat-trick over fences previously.

"We had a bit of a headache with him after Cheltenham - his nose hit the ground a bit hard, but once he got over that he's been absolutely fine," said Scott. And the trainer revealed it was the horse's regular partner Tony McCoy, who suggested going for the Ayr marathon.

"Tony McCoy has always talked about the Scottish National for him. As long as we get some decent ground we'll be up for it, but I don't know who will ride him at the moment," Scott added.