Finding horses that can win valuable chases is renowned to be difficult and usually involves a bit of skill, a bit more luck and a lot of money. So we consider ourselves very fortunate to have been at Horseheath on a very wet cold day in the spring of 2023 to spot the long distance potential of the massive Mr Vango. We were able to buy him for a very reasonable price at the Cheltenham April sale because he had a reputation of being very slow (which does have some truth to it!!!!) and the rest is history.
The Early Days..
Having seen him win so impressively in his maiden point to point, I will admit that we were disappointed when he could not keep up with the slowest horse at home, but he has always been a sweet, gentle giant with a wonderful attitude. We put our thinking caps on to work out how we could use our wonderful gallops and determination to give him the chance to maximise his potential, making use of his incredible strength and stamina.
He delighted us when he won over hurdles at the first time of asking as we had thought that anything he did over hurdles was a bonus. He also ran a massive race against the well thought of Grove Road when they pulled well clear of a competitive field at Hereford. At the beginning of the following season he had some niggles, which you would expect from a horse over 18hh, but he did exactly what was expected and hoped for when finishing a running-on third at Wincanton having jumped beautifully on his first attempt over regulation fences.
The Dream Began to Unfold…
Mr Vango won the Devon National by 60 lengths in his favourite heavy to bottomless ground, and gave Mark a welcome lift as he battled through his last weeks with cancer. On to Cheltenham. We should have realised that we would be taking on the best of the Mullins’ staying novice chase battalion as the National Hunt Chase was being run in the memory of no less than the matriarch of the incredible Mullins dynasty, Maureen Mullins. The gallant Mr Vango stayed on valiantly to finish third and was the best of the English so we could not have been more pleased with our new, enormous fledgling star.
The Year so Far
This year (2025), with a full training license in my own name, he has been a wonderful flag bearer. Lily (Bradstock) has applied her great skills to tuning his jumping and our wonderful grass gallops have enabled us to get him fit enough to win on his first run of the season under a fantastic ride from Nico (de Boinville), in the London National at Sandown. The lack of soft ground through the Autumn had been frustrating but storm Darragh came to our rescue on the Friday night and I was able to ring Nico on Saturday morning and tell him he needed to get his boots on as I thought that we had great chance. He and Nico made good use of the famous Sandown hill to stay on strongly, beating subsequent winner Collectors Item authoritatively.
He has such a massive body to carry at full speed that every race is hard work for him, so we were disappointed to have to miss his next target, the Welsh National, as he was not quite back in top form. We moved his next goal to the Classic Chase at Warwick. This was all going to plan and looking likely to be his ground, but our prayers for bad weather went a bit far and the meeting was cancelled. We knew that we were going to have to go up in the handicap to get into the Grand National (always the main target), and the Grand National Trial at Haydock is after the weights are finalised, so we decided to go to the Peter Marsh Chase, which is run over shorter than ideal for him. However, our endless work trying to speed up his cruising speed, his slick jumping and some very testing Haydock ground paid dividends, and we were delighted to see him gallop some very highly rated horses into the ground, and to win going away from the opposition.
The Grand National Slips Out Of Our Grasp
I had thought (sadly erroneously) that this second win in a premier staying handicap chase would get us a handicap mark suitable for the Grand National and that it might give us a chance at a place in the race if the ground came up soft. The guidelines that I read for the Grand National handicap clearly state that it is handicapped on merit for the race with distance and recent form being taken into consideration. I was disappointed to find that that there has been almost no movement in normal BHA handicap ratings which means horses with a high handicap mark but no recent or Grand National type staying and jumping form will get in, and barring miracles, Mr Vango will not.
Anyway, that is as it is, and we are going to aim for the Midlands Grand National although we would not run there if there is any chance of my dream of our crazy climate giving us a storm creating such heavy ground at Aintree that others do not want to run and we get a chance on his favourite ground!
Meanwhile, he is fresh and full of the joys of life so he will run in either the Kim Muir at Cheltenham, or the Midlands National, depending on the weather.
