Grand National - Sue Smith and Danny Cook plot Aintree glory for Vintage Clouds from the Baildon gallops

By The Newsroom
Published 6th Apr 2019, 07:19 BST
Updated 6th Apr 2019, 09:19 BST
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Vintage Clouds carries Yorkshire’s main hopes in the Grand National. One of the best-backed horses, the grey is trained on Baildon Moor by Sue and Harvey Smith whose Auroras Encore triumphed at Aintree in 2013. Tom Richmond reports.

VINTAGE CLOUDS is a picture of equine perfection as he powers up the gallops under Danny Cook in the horse’s final piece of work before today’s Randox Health Grand National.

Under the watchful eye of trainer Sue Smith, the grey thunders past her wind-swept vantage point high up on Baildon Moor. “Come on Danny, keep rolling,” implores her assistant Ryan Clavin, who is aboard The Paddy Pie.

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The Yorkshire Post says: A vintage National will leave this Yorkshire stable on cloud nine

Jockey Danny Cook and trainer Sue Smith with Grand National hope Vintage Clouds.Jockey Danny Cook and trainer Sue Smith with Grand National hope Vintage Clouds.
Jockey Danny Cook and trainer Sue Smith with Grand National hope Vintage Clouds.

Visually more impressive than the stable’s Auroras Encore in his last major gallop before winning the world’s greatest steeplechase six years ago, the two horses gallop on over the brow of the hill and out of sight.

And when they come to a halt, and hack back towards the ever-vigilant Smith, the response from the saddle is both effusive and encouraging. “Never had him in better form,” reports Cook.

Smith is content. “Job done lads,” she says before informing her husband Harvey, the 80-year-old legendary showjumper, of the horse’s wellbeing as he takes to his tractor to harrow his meticulously kept gallops.

Nothing here is ever left to chance.

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Yorkshire's Grand National contender Vintage Clouds powers up the gallops under big race jockey Danny Cook.Yorkshire's Grand National contender Vintage Clouds powers up the gallops under big race jockey Danny Cook.
Yorkshire's Grand National contender Vintage Clouds powers up the gallops under big race jockey Danny Cook.

For, while the winner of Aintree’s unique race over 30 fearsome fences will complete the gruelling four-and-a-quarter-mile course in nine minutes, the race is the culmination of a year’s work for the Smith team.

Ever since Vintage Clouds, whose coat is lighter than the slate grey skies overhead threatening sleet and snow, missed the 40-runner cut for last year’s National by just one horse, this £1m race has been the target.

Third in the Scottish National (the aforementioned Auroras Encore was second in the 2012 renewal), Vintage Clouds won his comeback race at Haydock before pulling up in the Welsh National last December following a rare below-par run.

Yet, after a minor wind operation to assist his breathing, the grey was an eyecatching second at the Cheltenham Festival last month and might have won if the race had been longer than three miles.

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