{"id":851671,"date":"2026-03-26T13:38:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T13:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/851671\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T13:38:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T13:38:19","slug":"grand-national-2026-john-oshea-confident-of-barton-snows-aintree-follow-up-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/851671\/","title":{"rendered":"Grand National 2026: John O’Shea confident of Barton Snow’s Aintree follow-up bid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cheltenham Festival winner is ‘better than ever’ insists trainer John O’Shea ahead of bid for double in Randox Foxhunters’ Chase at Aintree Racecourse<\/p>\n

13:16, 26 Mar 2026Updated 13:18, 26 Mar 2026<\/p>\n

\"Jockey<\/p>\n

Jockey Henry Crow and trainer John O’Shea (left) after winning the Princess Royal Challenge Cup Open Hunters’ Chase with Barton Snow on day four of the 2026 Cheltenham Festival at Cheltenham Racecourse on Friday, March 13 2026(Image: Mike Egerton\/PA)<\/p>\n

Joe O\u2019Shea feels that Barton Snow is better than ever as he bids to build on last month\u2019s success at the Cheltenham Festival<\/a> by winning the Randox Foxhunters’ Chase at Aintree Racecourse<\/a>, writes Nick Seddon<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Randox at on April 11.<\/p>\n

The nine-year-old arrives here in fine form having racked up his seventh straight success on the Cotswolds last month and he\u2019s a well-supported 7-2 favourite at the time of writing to strike over the Grand National<\/a> fences at Aintree<\/a> on Thursday, April 9.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Shea has won this race twice before with Cousin Pascal in 2021 and 12 months ago with Gracchus De Balme and he feels the shorter trip at Aintree could suit Barton Snow as he goes for the hat-trick \u2013 a feat achieved only once before since the Second World War.<\/p>\n

The most recent horse to win the Cheltenham contest before going on to success at Aintree was On The Fringe, who won both races in both 2015 and 2016.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Full list of current 55 Grand National entries plus Iroko and Jagwar ready for Aintree<\/a><\/p>\n

The Gloucestershire-based trainer said: \u201cIf I told you he\u2019s improved 5lbs I\u2019d be telling lies, he\u2019s improved 7lbs. He\u2019s unbelievable. I didn\u2019t really want to go to Cheltenham. In all fairness, Aintree was the plan all year and we were using the Cheltenham race to condition him and we ended up winning it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe shorter the trip, the better this horse is so I\u2019m looking forward to Aintree. He\u2019s been back in work for three days and I can\u2019t believe how much he\u2019s improved for the run, it didn\u2019t take an ounce of energy out of him. The fences are the question mark, but if you think 7-2 is a good price about him jumping round then get on, because I don\u2019t think he\u2019ll come off the bridle. That\u2019s how confident I am, but Aintree is Aintree and you have to jump round.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Shea could have as many as four runners in the race, including last year\u2019s winner Gracchus De Balme, who he feels is well worth a second look at a bigger price.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cGracchus De Balme is getting back to the horse he was last year, if he\u2019s fully fit and firing \u2013 he\u2019s very good. I\u2019ve seen he\u2019s 25-1 and higher and I would write him off at your peril. The jockey at Cheltenham said the second he was headed he dropped the bit, which is what he does. He loves being in front and we\u2019ll be going fast at Aintree. I\u2019m also looking forward to seeing Willewonga. He\u2019s a huge price and my money would be on him, he jumped well last year and he wasn\u2019t 100% that day. His owner Nathan (Richards) has been incredibly loyal and this is his dream, so we\u2019ve saved him for this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the 68-year-old has hinted that this campaign could be his last, with the hunter chase season wrapping up at Stratford at the end of May.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI\u2019ve nothing else to prove, so after this year I\u2019ll be winding things down. I\u2019ve had a fantastic innings and it\u2019s been a pleasure. I\u2019ve loved every minute and have no regrets. I had a quadruple heart bypass 18 months ago and my consultant has told me to slow down. I\u2019ve been scared to slow down because if I do that I might get caught up by the other trainers!<\/p>\n

\u201cI will say, I\u2019ve got one novice called Boley Bob and if he shows the potential he shows at home things might be different. If he wins at Cheltenham in April we could go for a final at Stratford. I\u2019ll either go out on a bang or decide I can\u2019t walk out on this horse. We\u2019ll decide when we get there!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cheltenham Festival winner is ‘better than ever’ insists trainer John O’Shea ahead of bid for double in Randox…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":851672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1959,139033,51246,287,205154,288,1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-851671","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-aintree","9":"tag-aintree-racecourse","10":"tag-cheltenham-festival","11":"tag-grand-national","12":"tag-haydock-racecourse","13":"tag-horse-racing","14":"tag-racing","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116295755829812234","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=851671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/851672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}