RACING JOURNALIST JOHNNY Ward is back with his best tips – along with the latest William Hill odds – as the Aintree Festival reaches its main event later today.
It’s the one race that genuinely stops several nations, and there’s no better way to enjoy the Grand National than to back the winner.
We’ve a cracking card to conclude the three-day festival, and here are three to consider on Saturday:
Winter Fog — 4/1 (Handicap Hurdle, 1.45)
William Hill went up first with this market and 15/2 Winter Fog, which sadly did not last long.
This horse is still a relatively blank canvass for Emmet Mullins. The Pertemps saw an antepost gamble in the shape of Winter Fog, who has the same connections of The Shunter, who landed a gamble at Cheltenham last year.
He travelled like a dream at Leopardstown in his prep run, only to not last it out – and it is perhaps telling that Mullins went for a hood at Cheltenham, when he again travelled like a winner and ran a fine race.
I can’t but think this flat track will be far more suitable and he’s surely a winner waiting to happen, with Hills paying five places. Paul Townend was happy he stayed the trip at Cheltenham.
Longhouse Poet — 12/1 (Grand National, 5.15)
William Hill pays six places on this race. He has reached pension age but Martin Brassil’s hunger for the game is unsated and he can take the Grand National with Longhouse Poet.
It is 16 years since the County Clare native took the race with Numbersixvalverde and he reckons that his runner in 2022 has considerably more class – but there’s also no doubt you need it in this era.
The National, perhaps the most iconic race in the world, has changed for the better in the past decade. The race is now classier than ever, and Longhouse Poet ticks plenty of boxes.
Back in the old days, an eight-year-old having only had six runs over fences would not seem a type for this race but Longhouse Poet has the makings of a modern winner.
Though Brassil reckoned he wanted heavy ground, it was soft and pretty dry by winter standards when he landed a gamble in the Thyestes Chase at Gowran in January.
Significantly, that was a race Numbersixvalverde won before his Aintree heroics too.
And it is encouraging that perhaps his most striking victory was achieved in a bumper on good to yielding terrain around this time of year.
That success involved a pretty comfortable victory over Monkfish, who progressed into a top-class novice chaser before injury prevented him from appearing this season.
Few of these can be guaranteed to get the distance – such is the nature of the race – and the Yeats-bred is one who has to prove his stamina. However, he looks likely to not only stay the distance but improve for it.
Moreover, he jumps well and should be able to stay out of trouble in the first dozen or so runners under crack youngster Darragh O’Keeffe.
Rath Gaul Boy — 4/1 (Bumper, 6.20)
Ernest Gray was really impressive on his British debut for Alan King and has to be respected but Rath Gaul Boy is appealing each-way for Willie Mullins.
Mullins seems to have won pretty much every bumper he’s tackled this year, including the Cheltenham Bumper and the Leopardstown one in which this son of Well Chosen made his Rules debut in March, when sent off at 8/13.
What intrigues me is that Willie Mullins doesn’t really target this race but the last time he had a runner (in 2016) he won it with Bacardys. Rath Gaul Boy will stay on strongly going on the way he won at Leopardstown and the likely strong gallop can only suit.
William Hill odds above correct at the time of writing. New online customers get €30 in free bets when they bet €10 with William Hill. Just use the promo code H30. For all the latest prices, visit williamhill.com. 18+, always gamble responsibly. For more information, see gamblingtherapy.org
