Last week I wrote a post about new kid on the block Palypso De Creek and more or less wrote off his Grand National 2010 chances on a number of bases, least of which was the fact that he’s never even jumped so much as a small hurdle on the UK. Did the Beechers Chase on Sunday change my mind?

Before the race there was much speculation about his chances and a lot being made of the fact that he’d never run here and that his first competitive race would be over some of the most difficult fences the UK has to offer including Beechers Brook and The Chair but surprisingly these didn’t seem to knock a stir out of him, especially when you consider that both Irish Raptor and Idle Talk failed to even make it passed the second fence. Ridden by Tom Siddall and trained by relative newcomer, Charlie Longsdon (only been training for four years), his odds were still quite short at 6/1 before the race.

He started well, keeping pace with leader Hello Bud and jumped all 21 fences very well given his lack of experience, and he really didn’t make many mistakes at all. But with two to go he seemed to drift backwards, having apparently run out of steam but the cynic in me wonders if this wasn’t part of the master plan, after all, this race was only supposed to be a training exercise to determine if he could even jump the fences. Could it be that the jockey was told to get him cleanly over the fences but not to kill him on the straight to win? It’s not unheard of is it?

I watched and re-watched that race four times to figure out the game plan and to be honest I still can’t tell if he just ran out of juice or if he had competently jumped all fences and was being saved for future races knowing that he really wasn’t going to win the Beechers Chase. No doubt, Charlie Longsdon will be more than happy with his performance, especially if he really is seriously considering the Grand National in April.

As for me, well I think he’s still too young and though he had some competition today it certainly wasn’t the best that the National will offer all of which may overshadow him on the day.

For all Grand National ante post odds just go to your favourite bookmaker – Paddy Power, Ladbrokes or Betfair.