Trainer Paul Nicholls finally won his first Aintree Grand National with Neptune Collonges in 2012 and a former inmate of his Pierrot Lunaire landed the American version yesterday.
Now in the care of Blythe Miller Davis, Pierrot Lunaire finished strongly to get past pacesetter Divine Fortune to win the $250,000 Grand National (Gr. 1) by three-quarters of a length at the 92nd Far Hills Races on Saturday, Oct. 20. Royal Bonsai finished third in the USA’s richest steeplechase race.
The win puts Pierrot Lunaire into the hunt for the US earnings championship and the Eclipse Award with his second straight Grade 1 victory. He had won his previous start, the $150,000 Lonesome Glory Stakes at Belmont Park by a nose on Sept. 27. Bernie Dalton rode the eight-year-old gelding in both the Grand National and the Lonesome Glory.
In the Belmont victory, Pierrot Lunaire went off at 48.75-1, the highest price horse in the field. “The Belmont race was a surprise, but this one wasn’t,” said Bruce Miller, the veteran horseman who saddled Pierrot Lunaire for his daughter, trainer Blythe Miller Davies.
Pierrot Lunaire earned $150,000 from the Grand National purse and raised his 2012 earnings to $253,000. He ran the Grand National’s 2 5/8 miles over National Fences in 5:40.
