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12.45pm MAGHULL NOVICE CHASE betting

  • Salvator Mundi – 11/10

  • Kala Conti – 11/4

  • Mighty Bandit – 7/1

  • Be Aware – 10/1

  • No Questions Asked – 20/1

  • Alnilam – 22/1

  • Mirabad – 50/1

  • King Of Kingsfield – 50/1
    Full betting via Oddschecker

1.55pm MERSEY NOVICE HURDLE preview

The performance of Kaka’s Cousin in the preceding handicap will be an interesting pointer to the chance of Olly Murphy’s Scorpio Rising, who won the Sandown handicap in which Kaka’s Cousin finished fourth. The six-year-old was steered around the festival and has more than earned this tilt at a Grade One by stringing together four straight wins in progressively stronger company this season. Gordon Elliott is going for a five-timer in this race with Ballyfad but he did not cut much ice in the equivalent race at Cheltenham, where Dan Skelton’s Bossman Jack, who is vying for favouritism with Ballyfad, looked unlucky not to finish closer when four lengths behind the winner in sixth.

SELECTION: SCORPIO RISING

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1.20pm HANDICAP HURDLE preview

A big field for this handicap hurdle for stayers but the market is dominated by a trio of lightly-raced novices in Kaka’s Cousin, Hold The Serve and Fortune Timmy. All three have plenty of scope to progress beyond their current handicap marks so it is probably a question of which one will find the most improvement, and Hold The Serve, with just four races in the book, could be the one, as he has run out a comfortable winner of his last three starts. Kaka’s Cousin, meanwhile, was better than the bare result when fourth in a highly competitive handicap at Sandown last time, while Fortune Timmy is a handicap debutant after finishing in midfield in the Grade one Turners Novice Hurdle at Cheltenham last month.

SELECTION: HOLD THE SERVE

Greg Wood

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Going to start running through our race previews now …
12.45pm MAGHULL NOVICE CHASE preview

An early start for the action at Aintree with a Grade One novice chase that got rather lost last year, when it was off at 5.00 race, an hour after the National. The three principals in the betting were all steered around Cheltenham last month and so arrive here fresh, and the standout is Willie Mullins’s Salvator Mundi, thanks to his winning form in the Grade One novice over this trip at this meeting 12 months ago. His main market rival is Gordon Elliott’s mare Kala Conti, second in the Grade One Scilly Isles Novice Chase at Sandown in February, while Mighty Bandit is stepping up from handicap company after reeling off three straight wins.

SELECTION: SALVATOR MUNDI

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There is also one change of jockey from those printed in your morning papers. Kielan Woods has not recovered from his fall earlier in the week and that means he will miss the ride on Marble Sands in the Grand National, and will be replaced by Tom Bellamy.

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We have a new National favourite and it’s the mare Panic Attack. No mare has won the National since Nickel’s Coin in 1951, when only three finished! Panic Attack is a slick jumper of a fence and has been in terrific form this season. Here’s the early betting for the market leaders:

  • Panic Attack – 7/1

  • Jagwar – 8/1

  • I Am Maximus – 9/1

  • Grangeclare West 9/1

  • Johnnywho – 11/1

  • Montys Star – 12/1

  • Oscars Brother – 14/1

  • Iroko – 16/1

Pathe News report on Nickel Coin winning the Grand National in 1951.

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Aintree non-runners

These won’t be turning up in theire respective races so cross them off your lists. Nick Rocket, last year’s winner of the Grand National, has the sniffles!

1.55pm Turners Mersey Novice Hurdle

3 Came From Nowhere (Unsuitable Going)

2.30pm William Hill Handicap Chase

4 Imperial Saint (got into the Grand National as a reserve)

5 Amirite (got into the Randox Grand National as a reserve)

8 Myretown (Vet’s Certificate, abscess)

14 Stolen Silver (Bruised foot))

3.05pm JET2 Liverpool Hurdle

2 Happy Jacky (Transport issues)

4.00pm Grand National Handicap Chase

2 Nick Rockett (Coughing)

7 Spillane’s Tower (Horse not qualified)

35 Pied Piper (Lame)

Good morning. There was rain around this morning at Aintree when the BBC Breakfast weatherman was giving his forecast but it’s cleared up and the ground still has some juice in it. They always water the track well with safety in mind.

Grand National Course: Good to Soft

Mildmay Course (Chase & Hurdle): Good to Soft, Good in places

Aintree tell us “there was 2mm of rain overnight. The showers should clear by mid-morning for a partly sunny day but here is the slight chance of a further shower mid-afternoon.”

Preamble

Welcome to Aintree on Grand National morning, where a sellout crowd is gathering to witness one of the most historic and compelling spectacles in sport as 34 runners and riders line up for the big race at 4pm BST.

An early smattering of rain is clearing away, there’s a brighter forecast for later in the afternoon, and the betting market for the National is already heating up with an early gamble on Jagwar, one of just three seven-year-olds in the field. Panic Attack, the only mare in the field, is popular too, even though the last female (horse) to win was way back in 1951, and has just taken over at the top of the market at 8-1, while Jagwar is top-priced at 17-2 and yesterday’s favourite, I Am Maximus, has drifted out to 9-1 in a place.

Other names that leap out of the list for a variety of reasons are Oscars Brother, from the two-horse yard of Connor King in Ireland; Haiti Couleurs, bidding to be a first Welsh-trained winner since 1905, who is ridden by Sean Bowen and trained by his former babysitter, Rebecca Curtis; and Mr Vango, trained by Sara Bradstock, whose father, the hugely popular broadcaster and journalist Lord John Oaksey, finished second aboard Carrickbeg way back in 1963.

Every punter will have their own way of picking a winner, of course, and Gorgeous Tom may well be popular later with the nation’s Thomases and their kith and kin, and I reckon he might well be in with a decent each-way chance. Picks for the National itself and the ITV races in the run-up to the big one are here, a full guide to all of the runners is here, and you can, as always, follow all the news, views and market moves here on the blog as the countdown begins to the biggest race of the year.

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