Le Breuil

Le Breuil ran well for a long way in the Becher Chase. He jumped well, his first go over the spruce fences, and he travelled well into the home straight before he tired. He was beaten by 20 lengths in the end by Walk In The Mill, but he ran much better than that.

Ben Pauling’s horse was a progressive staying novice chaser last season. He was below top grade, but he finished third behind Santini in the Grade 2 novices’ chase at Newbury’s Ladbrokes Trophy meeting, and he stayed on well to beat Discorama in the National Hunt Chase at the Cheltenham Festival. He had had a run this season before this, he pulled up in the West Yorkshire Hurdle at Wetherby’s Charlie Hall Chase meeting, but this was much more encouraging. The handicapper dropped him by 2lb to a mark of 148 and, a just-turned-eight-year-old who has run just seven times over fences, he will be of interest off that mark. He holds an entry in the Classic Chase at Warwick on Saturday, and his primary target this season could be the Aintree Grand National, a race that eight-year-olds have won three times in the last five years.

Aintree, 7^th December 2019