Val Dancer has Haydock Grand National Trial option

Val Dancer could be next seen strutting his stuff at Haydock in the Grand National Trial Handicap Chase after his Welsh Grand National heroics.

Mel Rowley’s eight-year-old arrived at Chepstow for the track’s Christmas feature in top form having won his prep race at Carlisle, and emerged best from the fog that limited visibility on the day to see off Sam Thomas’ pair of the fancied Jubilee Express and previous winner Iwilldoit.

Having come out of the race in rude health, he could now head to Merseyside in search of further riches in the staying chase division on February 15.

“He has come out of the race extremely well, I’m delighted to say,” said Rowley.

“At the moment, he’s telling us he’s well up for it. We’re going to give him a reasonable amount of time on the easy list, but I guess we would be thinking of something like the Grand National Trial at Haydock for him.

“It’s over a similar distance but a very different track, so that will be interesting. But Haydock can be attritional if we get wet weather and he does seem to act well in the soft. I think that will be the obvious target, but we will be dictated to by him.”

The Rowleys are no strangers to success, with Mel’s husband Philip saddling Hazel Hill to win at the Cheltenham Festival, while their Shropshire base is the place where top-class talents such as Sprinter Sacre spent their formative years.

However, Chepstow proved a day to remember for Mel Rowley and the obvious highlight of her time in the professional training ranks since taking out a licence at her family’s Poplar Cottage Farm stables.

“It was by far our biggest success and I think the only regret is that we might have already worn out the tape replaying the race, but of course there is not a lot to see,” continued Rowley.

“We just have to imagine what it would have been like! But it was amazing and everyone has been so kind with their congratulations.

“For the team, it just makes all the hard work worthwhile, as those sort of days don’t happen to us that often. It’s important we make the most of them – and rest assured, we did that weekend.”

Rowley also revealed Val Dancer has been revelling in his festive triumph and was a willing star of the show when paraded at a local point-to-point in the days following his Chepstow win.

“A couple of days later, he was asked to go and parade at the point-to-point and a lot of the point-to-point jockeys got very excited,” quipped Rowley. “I think they thought they might have a chance of a free ride in the men’s open!

“He was very full of himself and his own self-importance and is sound as a pound and has eaten up well since Chepstow. It was all very, very positive, which was fabulous.”

Rowley went on: “There are plenty of horses in training but those Saturday high-profile horses don’t come along that often, so how lucky are we.

“We had Wishing And Hoping, who very much wore his heart on his sleeve and was ‘catch me if you can’ from the front, but Val Dancer is very different and he came to us so shy and had so little confidence in his own ability – and literally a shell.

“He could only improve and I think this year he has really come of age and is completely different in his personality and demeanour and can now be actually quite fresh and spicy at home.”