Mahler Mission put in a gallant effort for glory in November’s Coral Gold Cup at Newbury and now all roads are leading to Aintree for the eight-year-old and a tilt at the big one, the Grand National, in April.
That second at the Berkshire track was a big performance and has been enough for the John McConnell-trained gelding to be considered third favourite to land the world’s most famous jumps race.
Mahler Mission is joint-owned by Colm Herron and the Rockview Racing Syndicate, who were brought into a partnership two years ago.
Mahler Mission is trained by John McConnell at Stamullen in County Meath, Ireland, who claimed his first Cheltenham Festival winner last year when Seddon landed the Plate.
Up until 24th February, McConnell, who started training in 2010 having qualified as a vet, had posted 41 wins from 361 runs for a strike-rate of 11 per cent.
Seddon has a number of entries for the Festival but is the shortest price at 14/1 to make a successful defence of the race he claimed last year.
Mahler Mission is an eight-year-old gelding who made his debut in a point-to-point at Nenagh in February 2020.
Mahler Mission ran off 10st 7lbs when second in the Coral Gold Cup in November and has been handed a weight of 11st 1lb for his tilt at the Grand National in April.
The run at Newbury was off an official mark of 151 and gave Mahler Mission the biggest Racing Post Rating of his career at 160.
McConnell has decided not to take Mahler Mission to Cheltenham and he will attempt to be the owner’s first winner of the Grand National, where he is third favourite at 14/1.
The Coral Gold Cup runner-up is rated 10 pounds lower than topweight Hewick, who is trained by another Irish stable head Shark Hanlon.
Mahler Mission came second on his point-to-point debut and then broke his maiden at the third attempt when landing a 2m 4f hurdle at Sedgefield in January 2022, claiming a 14-length victory,
Another win at Doncaster led to him taking a chance in the Albert Bartlett Novice Hurdle at Cheltenham, where he finished a creditable seventh as a 66/1 outsider behind The Nice Guy.
Mahler Mission then went chasing after winning one more hurdle race at Perth and looked to have the National Hunt Challenge Cup at his mercy when falling when four lengths clear at the penultimate fence.
However, he made a strong recovery with second at the Newbury Gold Cup on his handicap debut, a performance even more impressive when trainer McConnell revealed he had lost both of his front shoes.
Mahler Mission’s earnings from both chases and hurdles totals £122,156, with £42,764 coming from race wins.
After putting all their eggs into the National basket, McConnell is delighted that Mahler Mission will get his chance after being ranked the 14th best horse among the 94 entries who were confirmed in February.
Speaking after the Aintree weights announcement, he said: “He’ll be my first National runner. I had a first reserve about three years ago, but he didn’t get in so at least he will get in.
“I’m very excited to be going there with a horse with a chance. I didn’t expect him to be so high. I thought there would be more high-quality horses entered.
“The owners are leaving it up to me but you’re kind of limited where you can go with a guy with his rating anyway.
“At the minute he’s still a little bit short of Gold Cup class so you have to go for one of the big, big handicaps and the way he jumps he looks like Aintree should suit him, so it’s an obvious target.
“He probably does handle all ground but slow, good ground or good to soft is fine for him and he’s got a high cruising speed as well, so he shouldn’t be taken off his feet if they did go quick early.
“Obviously you need an awful lot of luck and you need to be 110% for it but he certainly ticks a lot of the boxes.”
Any odds displayed were correct at the time of writing and are subject to fluctuation.