THE weather might have slowed all the jump trainers down this winter, but you cannot keep a good man down and now the nights are longer and the weather drier, Howard Johnson is sending out the winners on a very regular basis.

The feature race at Haydock last Saturday was the inaugural running of the Betfred Daffodil Vase, and Johnson scooped the first prize of more than £31,000 with the well-backed Prince De Beauchene, who came home a ready winner at the odds of 7-1 under Brian Hughes who was replacing the suspended Denis O’Regan.

Further north, at Carlisle the Johnson stable was also on the mark with Diamond Frontier, who was an easy winner of the novices’ chase in the hands of Ryan Mania. The 4-6 favourite came home with 12 lengths to spare.

On Sunday, Musselburgh staged its first flat meeting and Mark Johnson was quickly off the mark with Skyfire, who was given a fine ride by Joe Fanning to land the 7f maiden at the odds of 11-1.

Staying north of the border, Bryan Smart and Tom Eaves teamed up with Esuvia to score in the 5f handicap.

Redcar got its season under way in front of a busy bank holiday crowd on Monday, and Middleham handler James Bethell saddled the versatile Sendali to come home in front in the 2mi handicap. The six-year-old had also been successful over hurdles at Catterick back in January.

Division Two of the 9f maiden concluded the card and it went to the Alan Swinbank yard, with Bear Tobouggie winning with the benefit of a strong ride in the saddle from P J McDonald.

There might not have been any local Flat racing on Tuesday but it did not stop Mark Johnston sending out three winners on the day. Staff Sergeant and Ibn Hiyyan were both on the mark at Southwell, while Yes Mr President took the feature race down at Ffos Las under Joe Fanning, who was recording his first ever winner at the new Welsh track.

There was no local Flat racing on Tuesday, but there was some over the sticks at Wetherby and, yet again, Howard Johnson was on the mark. This time it was Arrow Barrow who scored in the bumper at a whopping 40-1 under Denis O’Regan. It was a double whammy for Johnson as he owned the five-year-old.

Amazingly, there was another 40-1 winner on Wednesday, this time it was the John Weymes-trained Lord Raglan who took the extended 1mi handicap at Nottingham.

Earlier in the day Wi Dud was a very impressive winner of the condition stakes for Kevin Ryan and jockey Jamie Spencer.

Catterick also raced on Wednesday and the father and son combination of David and Adrian Nicholls recorded a double with Academy Blues and Johannesgray, both were well backed favourites.

Tomorrow is the day when the nation goes racing, The Grand National, the feature race of the year for so many, with 40 horses lining up over those 30 famous fences. It’s not hard to make a case for many in this year’s race, none more so than last year’s winner Mon Mome.

Victorious at 100-1 last year, he will be a lot shorter this time around as he is coming into the race in much better form, advertised nicely by finishing third in the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

The one I have liked all winter is Arbor Supreme, an Irish raider trained by Willie Mullins who ticks a lot of the boxes and can go well around 20-1 if getting some luck in running.

Today before the big one, there is a seven-race card at Aintree getting under way at 2pm. The Melling Chase, due off at 3.10pm, is a cracking race and West Witton trainer Ferdy Murphy has a live chance in it with Kalahari King who was last seen finishing third in the Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival.

A winner at this meeting last year, he is fancied to go well under Graham Lee who has picked a good ride in the National itself in the David Pipe trained The Package. Lee was successful on Amberleigh House back in 2004, can he do it again?