Barry Geraghty has yet to reach a decision on which horse he will ride in Saturday’s Randox Health Grand National as he has a host of horses to pick from in the extended four-and-a-quarter mile contest.
Geraghty returned from injury at Fairyhouse on Saturday where he partnered Close Shave, trained by Jessica Harrington, to victory and he is still undecided on what horse to ride in the Grade Three event, the race invariably seen as the one that stops the nation.
JP McManus’ retained jockey suffered six broken ribs following a fall from Charli Parcs in the Adonis Hurdle at Kempton in February but is now fully fit for Aintree, having been forced to sit out the Cheltenham Festival.
McManus has four possible entries in the race in the form of Pendra, Regal Encore, Cause Of Causes and More Of That but Geraghty has decided to ride one of the latter two in the event.
Cause Of Causes, trained by Gordon Elliott, became just the fourth horse to win three different races at the Cheltenham in March when following up successes in the National Hunt Chase (2015), Kim Muir (2016) with victory in the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase, whilst 2014 Stayers’ Hurdle winner More Of That finished sixth in the Cheltenham Gold Cup on his last outing.
Regarding the decision, Geraghty said on At The Races:
I’m none the wiser at the minute. I’ve sat on both horses. I rode Cause Of Causes work last week and he felt well. I schooled More Of That on Friday and that went well, too. Both are in good shape. You can make a very good case for both horses, so I’m a little bit undecided at the minute.
More Of That was running well at Leopardstown when he came down at the last. You have to think he disappointed a little in the Gold Cup, but you’d like to think he’s better than that. Cause Of Causes obviously won the cross-country race in Cheltenham and that has been a good indicator over the years, but off his handicap mark it could be hard for him.
It’s a tricky one. It’s not a straightforward one. I’ll make my decision on Thursday or shortly before. I can’t imagine it being too long before Thursday.
