The Grand National Festival begins at Aintree on Thursday, with four Grade One races to open the card. After a wet winter the course has been watered heavily to keep the ground as soft as intended, and the meeting promises plenty of action. Having had a good Cheltenham Festival, I’m hoping for more luck this week and I’ve picked out three fancies for Thursday.
LETS GO CHAMP (Randox Foxhunters’ Open Hunters’ Chase, 3:30)
Mags Mullins’ 11-year-old is a very interesting contender in the opener over the Grand National fences. He’s always shown talent but hasn’t been straightforward to train — nearly four years separated his point-to-point win and his racecourse debut — yet he progressed nicely for Henry de Bromhead, winning a valuable handicap chase at the Punchestown Festival two years ago and running well in the Galway Plate and the Paddy Power Gold Cup at Cheltenham.
Switched to Mags Mullins this season to pursue hunter chasing, he won a point-to-point at Oldtown in February, beating Stuzzikini and Journey With Me, and then beat Hunters Yarn in the Tetratema Cup Hunters Chase at Gowran Park in March. That form has been well advertised and places him among the better Irish hunter chasers.
His racing style suits this contest: a strong-travelling, forward-going mid-range stayer who jumps well and handles these fences. Sophie Carter has ridden him for his last two wins (she can’t claim here), so there’s plenty of familiarity. He looks overpriced to me.
SANS BRUIT (Close Brothers Red Rum Handicap Chase, 4:40)
Paul Nicholls’ charge has made winning this race look straightforward the last two renewals and is the obvious standout on form. After winning this race off a 130 mark in 2024, he ran respectably off higher marks, was then dropped 9lb by the BHA following some below-par runs, and returned to this race off the same mark to win again. He then won a valuable handicap at Plumpton 18 days later off a 9lb higher mark.
The way the BHA have adjusted his mark this season has again been generous — an 11lb drop for five runs that were not terrible — and he’s been presented to run well here. He’s been an early favourite and I expect him to shorten further. Whether he wins a third successive Red Rum or not, questions will persist about how generously he has been treated by the handicappers — as former BHA handicapper Phil Smith observed, they tend to “favour the majority at the expense of the minority.” I very much fancy him to go well again.
LENNON GROVE (Goffs Nickel Coin Mares’ NH Flat Race, 5:15)
Without the handicapper’s hand to worry about, I like the Gavin Cromwell-trained five-year-old. She has a point-to-point win and four bumpers to her name, including a victory at Thurles in December and a notable third in a Listed mares’ bumper at Sandown in March. In that Sandown race she was held up at the rear and made strong late gains up what looked the favoured near side.
Having secured black type, she’s likely to be ridden a touch more prominently and could show improvement for that. She looks overpriced to me.