With the closing date for Grand National 2010 entries fast approaching, trainers are now having to make the tough decisions as to whether or not they plan to enter their horses into the big race which takes place on April 10th 2010 at Aintree.

Trainer Charlie Longsdon has already decided that Palypso De Creek will be given an entry in a bid for the biggest success of his career. The seven-year-old is already familiar with the Grand National course at Aintree from his participation in the Totesport Becher Chase in November when he finished in fourth place.

More recently he finished second at Haydock on Jan 23rd from a field of 12 when he was paired with Tom Siddall so overall things are looking pretty promising for the young horse.

Longsdon said “We are very pleased with his Haydock run at the weekend…We will enter him in races like the William Hill Chase and the Kim Muir, but it is too early to say for certain where he will run.”

Ante-post odds are available with Betfair but just bare in mind that the Grand National is still a long way away in terms of horse racing and the entry date hasn’t even closed yet so you may lose your stake if you bet on a horse that ultimately does not run on the day.

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.

Ever heard of Palypso De Creek? If you answer no then you’re not alone because up until this morning, despite what I like to think of as a reasonably good knowledge of horses, I hadn’t heard of him either. But, according to Racing Post today, “Palypso De Creek will line up in the Totesport.com Becher Chase at Aintree on Sunday for what could be a first step on the road to the John Smith’s Grand National next spring”.

We don’t know a huge amount about him other than the fact that he is French import and trained by Charlie Longsdon. He has had one run over hurdles in the UK last month at Towcester, which he won with Tom Siddall riding him, but will only be having his first run over fences in Britain when he tackles the 3m2f contest in the Totesport.com Becher Chase at Aintree on Sunday 22nd November 2009. He has had 11 lifetime chase starts resulting in two wins, two seconds and a third place.

And though I don’t deny Longsdon only has the best of intentions for his horse, the chances of him getting anywhere in the 2010 Grand National appear to be very slim. Did I mention he’s only 6 years old and his form isn’t very consistent – 071P6-1! But I can understand the trainer giving him a run out with a view at looking at his long term potential but I think it’ll be a couple of years of UK steeple chase racing to get him into real contention for a race with the magnitude of the Grand National.

At least Longsdon doesn’t totally disagree with me having said “The Grand National is an option for him and we want to see how he takes to the fences. If he doesn’t jump them, we will have to scrap those plans, but if he runs well then we will have to consider coming back in April. We will find out a lot more about him on Sunday.”

For all the ante-post odds available for the 2010 Grand National just go to Paddy Power.