Evan Williams: 'Native River will take his rivals out of their comfort zone'

Evan Williams believes Native River's expected participation in Monday's Coral Welsh Grand National will make it a completely different test to the race Secret Reprieve won last season.

Joe Tizzard revealed this week that Native River, the 2016 Welsh National winner and 2018 Gold Cup hero, is set to take his chance off a mark of 166 at the head of the weights, giving the 3m6½f handicap, which will again be run behind closed doors, a very different shape to recent seasons.

Proud Welshman Williams, who achieved his lifelong dream of winning his country's biggest race in January, insists Secret Reprieve and any other horse who lines up at Chepstow will face an uphill battle to cope with the classy topweight.

Speaking on a call hosted by Great British Racing, he said: "We have to remember that it's a much better race this year because I think the best horse in the race is the top horse [Native River]. It makes the race a very, very classy race because he's a very classy animal.

Native River could make this season's Welsh Grand National a very different raceCredit: Edward Whitaker

"He's a Gold Cup winner and I think he's got an outstanding chance. A horse like that will take a lot of horses out of their comfort zone because he's far and away the classiest individual."

Secret Reprieve, a top-price 5-1 with sponsors Coral, will bid to become the first back-to-back winner of the Welsh Grand National since Bonanza Boy in 1988 and 1989.

The seven-year-old has not run since winning last season's race under Adam Wedge by three lengths and is up 6lb as he bids to defy the 352-day absence.

Williams has admitted he would have preferred him to have had a prep race before his defence but is philosophical about the challenge that awaits this time.

"He's great, I would love to have got a run under his belt but we haven't been able to do that because the ground has been far too dry for us," he said. "But that's the situation we're in and everything else is fine.

Secret Reprieve (Adam Wedge) clears away from the last fence to win the Welsh Grand National at ChepstowCredit: Edward Whitaker

"State Of Play won a Hennessy without a run and I keep clinging on to that. That was a good while ago, but they said that was impossible and nothing, absolutely nothing, in horseracing is impossible."

Conditions at Chepstow are good to soft but that is expected to change before Monday with rain forecast in the coming days, although clerk of the course Libby O'Flaherty is not expecting the problems the course has experienced in recent years – four of the last nine Welsh Nationals were postponed because of waterlogging.

O'Flaherty said: "It's been dry this week and the forecast is for the rain to start on Christmas Eve with 4-7mm forecast and it's going to continue to rain then through to the 27th, so the ground will ease and change.

"It all depends how much rain we will get, top end we could get 30-40mm and bottom end we could get 15mm, but we're more likely to see 20-25mm and the majority of that will fall on Christmas Day through to Boxing Day."

Welsh Grand National

Coral: 5 Secret Reprieve, 6 Highland Hunter, The Big Dog, 7 Hold That Taught, 12 Deise Aba, Hill Sixteen, Iwilldoit, Mighty Thunder, 14 Native River, 16 bar

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