Quinz misses National bid after Scoping Badly

4/4/13 - Connections of the live outsider Quinz were left rueing their luck after the Philip Hobbs-trained gelding scoped badly on Wednesday morning and will therefore miss his opportunity to bid for glory on Saturday afternoon in the eagerly anticipated John Smith’s Grand National.

Available at up to 66/1 in the Grand National odds, Quinz had looked on his way back to his best form when a creditable fourth at Kempton in February in the Grade 3 Racing Plus Trophy, the first time he had managed to complete the course since winning the same race two years earlier.

Blighted by injury, the Andrew Cohen-owned gelding had been expected to give a good account of himself and possibly give his owner surprise compensation for his grand sort Suny Bay twice finding just one too good for him in the Grand National in both 1997 and 1998.

Quinz did face the starter in the 2011 renewal of the Aintree marathon but failed to set the world alight, pulling up after the water jump having reportedly burst a blood vessel.

His recent Kempton effort showed that the son of Robin Des Champs still has plenty of ability and some good judges had suggested that off a much lower handicap mark than in his pomp, Hobbs’ stayer might well have given a very decent account of himself.

The Minehead handler will now have to rely solely on the progressive Balthazar King (20/1 in the Grand National betting), for whom the drying ground looks a big bonus and who will line-up at the starting tapes on the back of a winter break prior to which he had run two fine races in the autumn at Cheltenham.  Stable jockey Richard Johnson seems certain to take the ride.