"High Season, who never falls, fell and Midnight Opal, who was trailing him, was pushed back to last. She ran on strongly to finish second and would still have won if she'd run straight from the last fence."
Yamanaura is beautifully placed in tomorrow's $100,000 Meadow Fresh Great Northern to provide Wheeler with the right luck in the one iconic jumping race that has eluded him.
The veteran followed up seconds to Sea King and Mahanadi at the Grand National meeting with a solidly closing third behind King's Deep at the Pakuranga Hunt meeting at Ellerslie two weeks ago.
"He's improved slightly with that and I'm very happy where I'm at with him," said Wheeler.
"I thought his last run was very good as a guide to this race."
The 4190m of the Northern makes this a tough hurdles affair. The final 600m sorts out the pretenders from the contenders and Yamanaura has the type of stamina required to see it through.
So does Sea King who, after winning on the opening day of the Grand National meeting, was spared the big race at Riccarton to put him in a position to win this race.
Sea King shares 70kg topweight with Yamanaura and victory in the Grand National if he'd started would just about have put him out of contention in the handicap.
He made a rare mistake when he fell four fences out in the hurdle race on the Pakuranga Hunt Cup programme, but little notice should be taken of that when assessing him here.
Weight can be a killer in ultra distance races, particularly in the type of footing they will strike here, but both Sea King and Yamanaura are seasoned and genuine enough to give it a great shot. Yamanaura is part-owned by a previous chairman of the Auckland Racing Club, Barry Neville-White.
Through the years horses with just four hurdle starts behind them might not be considered in this race, but Kings Deep has won three of his four.
He has to step up from the 3350m on Pakuranga Hunt Cup day to 4190m tomorrow, but is certainly extremely promising for Paul Nelson, who admits he is uncertain how far the horse can progress.
Thatz David finished fourth in that Pakuranga race, just 2.7 lengths from Kings Deep, and Wanganui trainer Anne Davies says she has learned an awful lot about travelling the temperamental veteran from that one experience in the north.
Thatz David fights extremely hard in the closing stages of his races and that gives him some chance.
Ann Browne says she has no idea why Ima Heroine failed to fire in last year's Great Northern Steeplechase.
The dour staying mare looked sensational winning the Northern two years ago, but last year, after a similar lead-up, she flopped badly, finishing eighth, 15.6 lengths behind her stablemate Tom's Myth. "I have no idea what went wrong, except the ground might have been too good for her," said Browne, who has won three of the last four runnings of Elllerslie's famous race.
"She certainly seems fine this year.
"She's eating very well, better than ever."
Ima Heroine finished a great second to her rival again tomorrow, Snodroptwinkletoes, in the Pakuranga Hunt Cup.
The key is the jump up to 6400m - Ima Heroine has remarkable reserves of stamina when the ground is wet and heavy.
Karlos, Snodroptwinkletoes and Cape Kinaveral, third in the Pakuranga Hunt Cup, are also strong chances.
Great Northerns
* John Wheeler has a magnificent record as a jumping trainer, but the Great Northern Hurdles has always eluded him.
* Joint topweight Yamanaura gives him a fine chance to put that right.
* Ann Browne has a chance to add to her already startling record in the Great Northern Steeplechase with Ima Heroine.
