How do you trial for this? Bearing in mind that it's a handicap race. Anyone run this course on G1 setting? Any idea what a good time is on soft?

Just thinking of entering a few for the NHC and I fancy one of mine might stay the trip but no idea if the time is any good.

Also with regards to entry and handicap how many races do you need to enter prior to it. Just one? What if your horses falls in that single race? How to you get a fair mark?

If your flat times are anything to go by I expect the rest of us are looking at going sub 8 minutes to keep up

i tried to breed a GN horse failed miserably so went with a gamebred
hopefully he is not rated to low and will get in

I only have one horse that can go the distance though to be fair I haven't tested many. Makes it hard to know what a good time is when there's only one completing the course!

main issue i had was i breed 4milers with 4milers and they were producing 3m4 horses very frustrating so gave up
hope my gamebred will get in off a featherweight

Yup.. the few I did breed on jumps were 3m+ x 3m+ and they still didn't come close. Never found a 4m+ horse I wanted to breed to. The one horse I did find was a horse I bred for flat at 2m+ that I ran on to 7 years (that was a trial in itself) and it stays the 4m4

i have rommadarl but he performed well in lge and would have to carry a lot of weight and he couldn't see out the distance unless it was a brick road so stick with my gamebred

I also got a gamebred as my national hope he was a ex-flat horse that won 5 gold cup 5 welsh gold cups and 4 prix du cadran he won two Nationals falling twice very dodgy jumper but has already won a 4m 3f G3 race in the league winning by 10 lengths stays every yard I bred from it with loads of other stayers and none have come close to him and I have noticed in the league most trainers have gamebreds in the extreme distance in the NHC.

I think any horse could win the grand national, I had a game breed horse that was a 3 miler that finished 2-2-3-4-6-6. I think it's a lottery because the game pulls up about 8 horses before two fences. Plus for them to become 4+ horses u have to wait until they are past it.

Horses need to be 8+ to have any chance of staying 4m4. Also breeding them is tricky, but the general rule is that are almost impossible to breed in a flat game. The 2m4 flat horses don't seem to stay that far ( 3m5 seems to be as far as they will go) in NH. All my extreme distance horses come from my NH only game. I bred 3m horses with 4 mile game horses and then started to develop the lines.

I decided to run a few trials for this, but like many others I only have 2 horses capable of staying the trip and they want wildly contrasting ground.
I ran 12 trials, with 13 runners to ensure some pace, and in 9 of these one of the stayers failed to complete so the other won in a hack canter.
All trials were run on good ground and when both completed the times were:
9.33.38
9.34.66
9.35.4

Both these 2 horses are in the league, have shown form over 4m+ and are rated in the 130's to give this some perspective.

Top Of The Class 6yo stallion chaser 4m4f Good 3-0-0 0 100 69

this is my GN horse my biggest issue is that he is only rated 69 not sure he will get in off that mark
hopefully he will perform a little better in lead up to the GN
right now if he gets in he will be well out of the handicap

plan b

Rommardharl 8yo stallion chaser 4m Good 5-0-3 5,400 100 137
will have to be a brick road for him to stay the trip though

just did 4 trials this was the best that Mubaah actually stayed on his feet.



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Well this simply confirms what I thought.. my NHC stable is pants .

Just proves what I've suspected for awhile now that the league really needs commitment to succeed. Just dabbling won't really hack it and I suspect my 3 horses I uploaded for the NHC are doomed to mediocrity.