SATURDAY REPRESENTS A massive day in the racing calendar as Aintree hosts the Grand National. Heed Your Hunch is providing top tips for the main event, as well as the Betway Mersey Novices Hurdle and the Doom Bar Maghull Novices’ Chase
The most famous race of them all goes to post at 5.15 on Saturday. The Grand National is a great conundrum — being the biggest betting race on the planet and also one of the most difficult to pick the winner of.
Before the madness of the big one, the Betway Mersey Novices Hurdle goes to post at 2.25.
Getaway Trump (10/1) has lost his way a little in his last two runs. However, his best form is over a little further and he was second to Champ over this trip at Newbury after Christmas.
He missed Cheltenham after being beaten at Kelso. That freshness will help, as will going back up in trip. This is a great opportunity to get his career back on track.
Pleasant Company (16/1) will be standing in his box over at Aintree loving every single drop of rain that hits the Liverpool turf. Willie Mullins’ charge was only beaten in a photo last year and is on considerably better terms with Tiger Roll this year. Gold Cup-winning jockey Paul Townend has chosen to ride this son of Presenting, which will be far from a hindrance.
He is physically the right type of horse for the test as he is proven over track and trip. Trainer Willie Mullins won the race with Hedgehunter in 2005, having been beaten the previous year. Pleasant Company is four times the price of Tiger Roll for a head defeat, on better terms weight-wise.
With generous each way concessions, he has to be backed.
Ornua (9/2) raced prominently before falling in the Arkle at Cheltenham. He often runs a risk many two-milers take. On the flatter track here in the Doom Bar Maghull Novices’ Chase at 3.00, he might force others into errors. Henry de Bromhead generally has some of the best-schooled chasers in training and two-milers are his forte.
Ornua has some big shoes to fill, but at the prices makes more appeal than his rivals.
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