Alan King’s West End Rocker was the dominant force in the 2011 Becher Chase romping to a twenty-two length victory over the ever gallant Niche Market and Ballyvesey.

West End Rocker’s winning distance at the finish line was an impressive twenty-two lengths with over a further thirty lengths back to Ballyvesey. Bookmakers understandably reacted by cutting West End Rocker across the boards for the 2012 Grand National and Skybet, William Hill, Ladbrokes and Paddy Power cut the horse to an industry best-price of 20/1.

The first two horses home both survived an early scare with mistakes at the first fence with Niche Market in particular doing well to remain in the contest. Last year’s winner Hello Bud made most of the running again today and was determined to make this a test for all concerned with the Twiston-Davies runner still leading the field when unseating his rider at the Canal Turn. Hello Bud’s fall left Nicto De Beauchene and Rare Bob in the front rank but both capitulated rather tamely allowing West End Rocker to take up the running at the third-last. Paul Nicholls’ runner Niche Market had made eye-catching progress to get within a length of the leader going towards two out but could not find the necessary stamina on this rain softened ground to keep up the pressure after the last fence.

Niche Market could possibly be seen to even better effect on good or good to soft ground in the Grand National itself.

Two other noteworthy performances from Shalimar Fromentero and Abbeybraney with the former showing up really well for a five year old before knuckling on landing at Bechers Brook and previous Grade One Chase runner-up Abbeybraney putting a particularly eye-catching performance after 626 days off the track. On his first start for Nicky Richards, the former Graham Wylie owned gelding had make a bad mistake at the water but was still seemingly going well before also finding Bechers Brook too much of a test. Bechers Brook had been one of the three fences to have been modified following the BHA and Aintree’s recent review but it is pleasing to see that the most famous fence in the world still provides a stern examination and that the much publicised changes do not appear to have affected the character of the course.

A case could be argued that Aintree is becoming more and more a specialist’s course with all of the first four home in today’s Becher Chase having had previous experience over the Grand National fences. With former course winner Hello Bud also appearing as if he would have taken a hand in today’s finish it might pay dividends to focus on horses with course experience when making a selection for Grand National 2012.

West End Rocker will have to deal with a major hike up the official ratings following his win today as the last three winners of the Becher Chase all went up between six and nine pounds following their wins in this race. It has been suggested in some parts of the racing media that soft ground is the key to this horse and his chance at Aintree in April could therefore be diminished by the likely underfoot conditions. Today’s winning jockey Wayne Hutchinson seemed to disagree and was quoted as saying he was worried that the ground might have gone too soft for his charge and he pointed to West End Rocker’s win at Doncaster on good ground as indication that the horse is versatile when it comes to ground conditions. The jockey also reported that flat, galloping tracks bring out the best in the horse and he must have a great change of playing a big part in Grand National 2012 as long as the handicapper is not too harsh for today’s win.

Do you think West End Rocker can win the Grand National 2012?

Did anything else catch your eye from today’s Becher Chase?

Let us know your thoughts.