Holloway Queen skipping Irish National
By Racing TV
Last Updated: Tue 31 Mar 2026
There will be no Boylesports Irish Grand National bid for Cheltenham Festival winner Holloway Queen, with Nicky Henderson instead pondering if she could one day provide him with an elusive first Grand National success at Aintree.
A wide-margin winner over the larger obstacles at Newbury in February, she rolled on to the National Hunt Chase where she was equally impressive, showing her thirst for a marathon test in the hands of James Bowen.
The six-year-old was a 12-1 chance with the race sponsors for the Irish National but the Seven Barrows handler has decided against a Bank Holiday venture across the Irish Sea.
“She’s not going to go to Ireland,” said Henderson. “We’ve had a long think about it and she’s only six with her future in front of her.
“You can’t underestimate any race where they go further than three miles, never mind three-miles-six like she did last time, so we’ve decided to leave her alone.”
Henderson has famously never won any of the four major Nationals run each year, with his long quest for success in the English edition beginning on Merseyside in 1979 when Zongalero was run down late by Rubstic.
However dreams of finding ‘the one’ to conquer Aintree have never left the 75-year-old, who could easily picture Holloway Queen entering calculations for the world’s most famous steeplechase in the future.
Henderson added: “She can now come into next season wherever we decide to go and she’s young and has all the time in the world to be doing Grand Nationals and things – we don’t often win those sort of races, so she could at least try.
“Any National would do and the Irish one would have been nice, but on the other hand you don’t want to banjax things for the future by running at Fairyhouse.
“It would be quite a big ask for a young horse like that and Cheltenham was terrific, so I think we’ll rest on that and just keep the dream alive as they say.”
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