WITH Cheltenham on the backburner for another year, attention quickly turns to Aintree and the Grand National.
We didn’t do too badly with our ante-post tipping at Prestbury Park with both Chianti Classico in the Ultima and Captain Guinness in the Champion Chase put up at big prices.
Hopefully we can keep the momentum going and, having spent some time looking at the likely runners in this year’s National, I’ve got two plays for the big race.
The first is Willie Mullins’ MEETINGOFTHEWATERS who looks certain to go off much shorter than his current price of 16/1.
He ran in the Ultima at Cheltenham and really caught the eye with the way he travelled.
Granted, he was no match for the aforementioned Chianti Classico, but this marathon trip looks like what he needs as he stayed on in third up the run-in.
A mark of 147 looks very lenient and he appeals as a similar type to 2021 winner Minella Times, who tracked a very similar path to Aintree.
Minella Times was second in the Paddy Power Chase at Leopardstown over Christmas – a race Meetingofthewaters won – and I fancy the Mullins runners to run similarly well in a few weeks’ time.
The other I like is DELTA WORK for Gordon Elliott.
He comes into this much fresher than he’s done in the previous two renewals, with the Cross Country at Cheltenham being abandoned, and that might stand him in good stead.
A mark of 157 means he’s 3lbs lower than when third in 2022 which came after a gruelling victory over Tiger Roll at Cheltenham.
He is a bit long in the tooth at the age of 11, but he’s still very classy and he’ll almost certainly be much shorter than 33/1 on the day.
POINTERS GRAND NATIONAL
Meetingofthewaters e/w
Delta Work e/w