Daly Tiger has been flying the flag for graduates of Mick Goff’s point-to-point academy this season, with eight-year-old earning a rating of 157 after his second Graded success of the season in the Dan and Joan Moore Memorial Chase at Fairyhouse earlier this month.
However it is another of Goff’s former charges, The Two Amigos, who has been amassing quite the following in recent times.
However it is another of Goff’s former charges, The Two Amigos, who has been amassing quite the following in recent times.
A four-year-old maiden winner for Goff and Paul Power at Ballysteen back in 2016, the Midnight Legend gelding had failed to win in seven starts for David Pipe following that point victory, but it was when then being sold on to Nicky Martin that he really came into his own stringing up a run of success in the British pointing fields during the 2017/18 season where he won five races consecutively.
A terrific training performance from Nicky Martin as The Two Amigos takes the big prize at @plumptonraces. Congratulations! � pic.twitter.com/uc9SKROCAe
— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) January 6, 2019
The Somerset-based trainer then elected to switch him back to racing under rules which continued that winning form as he landed a Novice Handicap Chase at Newton Abbot off a mark of 109 in October 2018 and since then she has been able to draw out considerable improvement from her stable star, such that his handicap mark has risen by 35lbs to a current a career high of 144 for the nine-year-old.
A dour stayer who has won the Sussex National over 3m 4f, he ran a gallant race at Chepstow earlier this month to chase home Secret Reprieve in the re-arranged Welsh Grand National and Martin Nicky Martin hopes that her stable star can go one place better in next month’s Grand National Trial at Haydock Park.
Martin said: “He is such a superstar. Considering he is only 15”2 you would not think he would be a chaser but he jumps so well on the whole and the plan is to go to Haydock.
“He doesn’t always finish his races well when he comes off the bridle and I was worried he would get caught for second in the Welsh Grand National, but on what was better ground than it was described at Chepstow he stayed on well.
“He is only 2lb higher than when he finished fourth in the race last year and the horse is in better form than 12 months ago. He is very fresh again after running over nearly four miles at Chepstow two and a half weeks ago.
“He deserves to win a race like this as he has been knocking on the door for a while.”
A total of 34 entries have been received for the William Hill Grand National Trial which will take place on February 20, including last year’s Cheltenham Gold Cup runner-up Santini.
