PROGRESSIVE Flying Tiger (right, with Richard Johnson up), beating Divin Bere, with Noel Fehily up, in the Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap Hurdle during the Cheltenham Festival. Pic: Sportsfile
Michael Duffy and Pat Henry mark your card
Thursday
4-y-o Juvenile Hurdle
IMPRESSIVE Cheltenham winner Defi Du Seuil will be no price if lining up here, so it may pay to side with another winner at the festival. Flying Tiger won the Fred Winter at 33/1, but he looks progressive and ground versatile and may take some stopping under champion jockey Richard Johnson.
Selection: Flying Tiger 10/1 (MD)
Foxhunters’ Chase
DINEUR, last season’s runner-up in this race, has been lightly campaigned this time round with this in mind and boasts plenty of course form. Bear’s Affair should relish being back at a venue where he has been successful. The better ground conditions and trip will play to his strengths.
Selections: Dineur 20/1 and Bear’s Affair 14/1 (PH)
Friday
Melling Chase
FOX Norton looks banker material for the meeting. Colin Tizzard’s seven-year-old is improving at a rate of knots and was closing on Special Tiara all the time in the Queen Mother Champion Chase. He has plenty of good ground form in the book too.
Selection: Fox Norton 7/4 (MD)
Topham Handicap Chase
PAUL Nicholls looks to have a strong team entered in this year’s Topham. His horses seem to come alive in the spring and the pick of his team may be As De Mee and Bouvreuil. As De Mee showed his liking for the course with success in the Grand Sefton Chase in December while Bouvreuil’s recent run at Cheltenham recently was very promising.
Selections: As De Mee 12/1 and Bouvreuil 12/1 (PH)
Saturday
Liverpool Hurdle
NIGEL Twiston-Davies will be hoping for a better Aintree than Cheltenham, and if Ballyoptic produces the form that saw him beat Bellshill here last year, he should be on the premises, provided he has recovered from being pulled up in the World Hurdle.
Selection: Ballyoptic 6/1 (MD)
Grand National Handicap Chase
UCELLO Conti looks primed for a big run in the National. He has been solid all season and has shown steady progression in each of his runs in top company. He has had the taste of the National fences when running a good race in this last year and also in the Becher Chase back in December.
Nigel Twiston-Davis, no stranger to the winner’s enclosure at Aintree, is well represented in the form of Blaklion. This highly talented horse may only be small in stature but he is extremely brave and will be there in the thick of the action.
Definitely Red has been one of the talking horses for this year’s National and really advertised his claims with a storming performance in the Grimthorpe in Doncaster. He has a lovely racing weight but he probably doesn’t want good ground.
Double Shuffle is just a seven-year-old, but Tom George feels the horse is far too well treated to be passing up an opportunity at the National and I think he is right. He’s a great jumper, will love the ground, and Adrian Heskin may pick him over Saint Are, the 2015 runner-up.
Selections: Ucello Conti 20/1 and Blaklion 14/1 (PH)
Selections: Double Shuffle 40/1 and Definitely Red 10/1 (MD)
Other notable entries
FERGAL O’Brien’s highly promising filly Cap Soleil has an entry in the Mares’ Bumper on Thursday. She has been extremely impressive to date and a bright future awaits.
Scoir Mear was like an express train at the finish in the Coral Cup at Cheltenham, and if he travels to Aintree for the Grade Three Handicap Hurdle on Saturday, he should hit the frame.
Western Ryder had a luckless passage in the Champion Bumper last time out and the word from the yard is they are sweet on him making amends in Friday’s Grade Two Bumper.
