Bryony Frost booked for Milansbar as pair close in on Grand National dream

Bryony Frost will spend the next three weeks on tenterhooks, waiting to learn whether the horse she is booked to ride will be admitted to the Grand National field. It was confirmed on Wednesday that Frost will be aboard Milansbar in the race on 14 April so long as he makes the final cut of 40 runners, for which he needs five withdrawals from those rated higher than him.

“We never thought in a month of Sundays he’d get a run,” Milansbar’s trainer, Neil King, said. The horse looked a Grand National contender when, with Frost riding for the first time, he won Warwick’s Classic Chase by 11 lengths in January, the same race used as a prep run by One For Arthur on his way to Aintree glory a year ago.

But when the weights list for this year’s race was published last month, Milansbar was only 69th and clearly at risk of missing the cut. King stopped thinking about Aintree and ran the horse under other riders at Newcastle and then Uttoxeter.

When a lengthy roll call of National withdrawals was published on Monday, King was stunned to find Milansbar had moved to within touching distance of the final field. The last horse to make the cut a year ago was 48th in the list at this stage, three slots lower than Milansbar.

Wolverhampton 2.10 Annie Salts (nap) 2.40 Global Academy 3.15 Barnaby Brook 3.50 The Juggler 4.25 Raakid 4.55 Widnes 5.25 Madame Ritz 6.00 Surewhynot

Chepstow 2.20 Mr Lando 2.50 Dinos Benefit 3.25 This Is It 4.00 Saroque 4.35 Minellatillmorning 5.05 Vasco Du Mee 5.35 Barcalona

Ludlow 2.30 Michael’s Mount 3.00 Tree Of Liberty 3.35 Silver Kayf 4.10 Tornado In Milan 4.45 Opening Batsman 5.15 Flashing Glance (nb) 5.50 Best To Come

Chelmsford 5.45 Mossy’s Lodge 6.15 Sharp Operator 6.45 King Kevin 7.15 Red Touch 7.45 Kion 8.15 Mythical Spirit 8.45 Jack The Truth

Tips by Chris Cook.

“It’s all systems go for the National,” King said, adding that he had the approval of Paul Nicholls, Frost’s main employer, to book her for the ride. “I’ve been saying for three years that he’s made for the National and the way things have been this year, we might even get soft ground for him.”

King is grateful to the promising young amateur jockey Jack Andrews for giving Milansbar “a proper horseman’s ride” into second place in Saturday’s Midlands Grand National but noted that Andrews is not yet qualified to take part in the National. The horse has come out of that contest “in good shape” and will be freshened up in the expectation of making the final field at Aintree.

“It’s very, very exciting,” said the Wiltshire-based King, who remembers getting “an armchair ride” over the famous green fences back in 1995, when he partnered Stay On Tracks into 14th place in the Fox Hunters. Frost has also had a couple of spins in the Fox Hunters, finishing fourth last year on Pacha Du Polder, but her profile has been raised enormously by a string of successes this season and a first Grand National ride would make her the centre of attention once again.

Meanwhile Ruby Walsh confirmed that he will miss the National as a result of reinjuring a leg at last week’s Cheltenham Festival. The 38-year-old jockey hopes to be able to ride at the Punchestown Festival five weeks from now.