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| | Tuesday, 13 March, 2001, 17:39 GMT Llewellyn still up for National hat-trick  Carl Llewellyn won on Earth Summit in 1998 Welsh jockey Carl Llewellyn is determined not to let the probable absence of Irish horses from this year's Grand National affect his attempt to win the race for a third time. The Irish Ministry of Agriculture has confirmed horses will not be able to travel freely between the UK and the Republic until 30 days after the last case of foot-and-mouth. The Grand National meeting takes place between 5 and 7 April and trainers currently need a permit to cross the Irish Sea. But few took up the offer for the Cheltenham festival and the Irish voluntarily withdrew. Hordes Llewellyn, who won the world's most famous steeplechase on Party Politics in 1992 and Earth Summit in 1998, is due to ride Bow this year, believes the lack of an Irish challenge would not devalue a win. "Obviously the Irish would have had six or seven runners in the race, but the oposition on the day is what you have to beat.
"It will be tough on the day and there will be a lot of good British horses," Llewellyn said. But the Welshman admitted the mood created by the hordes of Irish fans would be sorely missed at Aintree. "They come over in their droves to Aintree and aside from the fact that they bring a lot of good horses, their absence will also affect the atmosphere," he said. Bold show Last year's winner Irish horse Papillon, who was widely tipped as this year's favourite, will now almost certainly miss the race. "He was one of my personal fancies, he has been trained for the race and has not had a hard season. "I expected him to make a bold show and repeat last year's win," said a disappointed Llewellyn. The Welsh jockey said it was too early to say whether the stringent regulations imposed by the Irish government on the movement of horses were too harsh. | |
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