sport news Gina Andrews will fulfil a lifetime ambition when she lines up in the £1m ... trends now
View
comments
Gina Andrews admits there have been occasions when she has let her mind drift into dreaming about what might happen when she rides Latenightpass in next Saturday’s £1million Randox Grand National.
‘The other day when I was riding him on the gallop I ended up doing an extra lap because I had gone off in my own little world,’ says the 32-year-old amateur who will fulfil a lifetime ambition when she lines up in the race.
‘I was thinking where I am going to line up and where I am going to be when I get to the Canal Turn. So I have thought about it quite a bit, mainly about the start because there are so many runners and it can be a bit of a nightmare.
‘It is whether I line up on the outside, inside or in the middle. But there is no point deciding now, you need to make that decision when you get there.’
The decisions Andrews make could be crucial. Latenightpass is far from a long-shot making up the numbers. Paddy Power have him up at 25-1, although he is at shorter odds with other firms largely because of his excellent Aintree record.
Amateur jockey Gina Andews will ride Latenightpass in next Saturday’s Grand National
Andrews has ridden the 11-year-old three times over the famous fences in the shorter Foxhunters’ Chase, finishing second in 2021, winning it in 2022 and finishing fourth last season.
In a Grand National where the entries are dominated by the big Irish stables, the duo offer the biggest splash of colour to a race which has had a habit of throwing up some of the sport’s most memorable stories.
Latenightpass is trained by Andrews’s champion point-to-point trainer husband Tom Ellis and was bred and is owned by her mother-in-law Pippa.
Initially this season the gelding, known as Bobby at the family stable in Warwickshire, was sent to neighbouring trainer Dan Skelton, who went to school with Tom.
Skelton prepared him to win a cross country
