The Grand National is not until Saturday, but jumping was the focus in the Grade 1 Bowl at Aintree on Thursday. Mistakes were made throughout the field, but it was Jango Baie who dominated the finish for NIcky Henderson and Nico De Boinville.
Along with Brighterdaysahead, Jango Baie was a Cheltenham championship runner-up who went one better at Aintree. However, he was not immune to jumping mistakes throughout the race. Fortunately for he and De Boinville, that was an issue for the entire quintet competing.
Spillane’s Tower’s jumping was the first to fall apart, while Pic d’Orhy was too scruffy throughout. That left Protektorat, who led until making errors at crucial moments, and Impaire Et Passe, influent throughout, but travelling powerfully.
Indeed, approaching the second last, Impaire Et Passe was potentially going best. About to draw alongside two out though, he and Paul Townend met the fence horribly wrong. Put under pressure by a superb leap by Jango Baie, the Mullins-trained runner came down.
That left Jango Baie with a clear lead he could not relinquish bar a fall at the last. He navigated it cleanly for a comfortable victory the like of which Gaelic Warrior secured over him in the Gold Cup.
“That’s testament to a proper Grade 1 jockey” – Henderson on De Boinville
35 minutes previously De Boinville was picking himself off the deck. Lulamba had unseated him in the Manifesto Novices’ Chase when sent off the odds-on favourite.
In such a rough-and-tumble race, it would have been easy to be defensive. However, he and Jango Baie enforced the mistakes of others late on to canter clear to Grade 1 glory.
“It was tough for Nico,” Henderson said to the Racing Post. “To have what happened on Lulamba and then to have to come straight back into another Grade 1 and pick yourself up. That’s testament to a proper Grade 1 jockey.”
Henderson also paid a handsome compliment to his horse, who is building a promising CV. He will challenge at the very top of the staying chase tree next term.
“I liked the way he travelled through the race,” Henderson said. “Today he actually picked the bridle up properly at the cross fence and coming home. We hadn’t seen him do that since his first run at Ascot where he travelled really well. He looked a sharper horse today to me than maybe he did even in the King George.”
The King George, as well as a tilt to go one better in the Gold Cup, are both on the radar once again.
“I can’t see any reason to change it (the 2026/27 schedule). They’re the two obvious races.”