Jonjo O'Neill ready to make big push for Aintree

Jonjo O'Neill and Don't Push It

Having achieved what amounted to a lifetime’s ambition for jockey, trainer and owner the question for Don’t Push It might be what next?

How about a place in history? In over 90 years only two horses – Reynoldstown in 1935-36 and Red Rum 1973-74 – have won successive renewals of the John Smith’s Grand National but Jonjo O’Neill remains hopeful that Don’t Push It can join that illustrious company when he lines up at Aintree on April 9th.

A second victory in the race may not be able to match the emotional outpouring between Tony McCoy and the packed grandstand that marked the champion jockey’s first victory in the race, at his 15th attempt, and helped him win the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award in December. But it was easy to see how much the victory meant to O’Neill, himself a champion jockey who never even completed the course as a jockey, and owner JP McManus who had waited nearly 30 years to see his colours first past the post.

The statistics are against a repeat performance and O’Neill admitted: “Don’t Push It won well last year but he is obviously going to have to carry more weight this time and things will be tougher for him. If he goes back in the same form and enjoys himself as much as he did last season, then he would have a great chance.”
After eight attempts as a jockey and 15 as a trainer O’Neill admitted that victory for him, McCoy and McManus had “taken the monkey off our back”.

“Winning last year was fantastic because it was a race that we have always wanted to win. I hadn’t had the best of luck as a jockey myself - I had eight rides when nothing happened and then I had a second [Clan Royal 2004] and two thirds [Simply Gifted 2005 and Clan Royal 2006] as a trainer. You begin to think that it is going to be one of those races that is going to elude you, so it was a fantastic feeling to win at last.”

O’Neill, with one on the handicapper, has restricted Don’t Push It to two runs over hurdles this season but is keen to put the horse back over fences once the weight for the National are announced early next month. “I‘d like to run him over fences before the National if I could find a race that’d suit him, but there are no races for him unless you go for a marathon trip,” O’Neill explained. “You don’t want to do that before Aintree with a horse like him because he puts a lot into his races.

“Ideally, I want to win a race before we go to Aintree and not just run in one, because the one thing you need him to be in the National is fit. He came back after a long break in the summer very heavy,” O’Neill said, adding with a smile “I think that JP must have given him a lot of sweets.

“I was going to run him last Saturday but he pulled a muscle. He always seems to get little things wrong with him and it is just a question of finding a race when he’s right. He had a canter today by himself as usual and I expect that he will be ready to run in a couple of weeks.”

The O’Neill/McManus partnership could also be represented at Aintree by Synchronised, who already has a pair of National wins to his credit. The eight-year-old ploughed through the mud to win the Midlands Grand National at Uttoxeter last March and then helped McCoy to complete the full set of major Nationals when he won the Welsh National at Chepstow two weeks ago.

“Synchronised will be given an entry in the National but he’d like fairly soft ground, which is the opposite to Don’t Push It. He has looked very well since winning the Welsh National and is in great form. He’ll probably head to the Midlands Grand National again and the main reason for that is hopefully the conditions at Uttoxeter might be similar to when he won the race last year. He is not going to have too many options because he does need the ground to be pretty soft.

“We entered him in the Cheltenham Gold Cup because he is rated 159 now and, if the ground came up soft, it might be a race that we would consider before going on to Aintree. We’re just trying to keep our options open - you never know about the conditions and so forth when you make the entries.

“I wouldn’t rule Aintree out but the ground would have to be soft. AP is worried about his jumping but he won’t be on board,” O’Neill said. “And I think that he doesn’t want Synchronised to come and beat him.”

McCoy may have achieved his lifetime’s ambition, but now he wants to do it all over again.

Paul Wheeler

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