It’s all about Aintree on Saturday and furthermore it’s all about the Grand National so we have an excellent value each-way pick in the main race, plus a banker bet in the Liverpool Hurdle.
To support these selections we have a couple of nifty picks on the all-weather at Lingfield during what promises to be the biggest betting day of the year by far. Here’s what’s on offer this week:
Embed from Getty Images2.30 Lingfield (7f Novice Stakes) – BETTY F
We won’t get much of a price about this Betty F but for once I don’t mind given that she really shouldn’t struggle against these rivals.
Even taking into account that Jeremy Noseda’s filly was dragged along by top quality horses to produce a rating of around 90 when contesting the Group One Cheveley Park Stakes last autumn she ran so well on debut that you’d imagine she is indeed a pattern filly and so should have too much for the likes of Jurz.
She was wisely put away after Newmarket and with a winter on her back and some fast work at home she can show up best of this bunch and get us off to a good start.
3.05 Lingfield (1m2f Handicap) – MOUILLE POINT
This is a tight little handicap where a number of contenders may run right up to their mark, however I think the two four-year-olds will improve past them all and with a tiny bit of potential and a better draw meaning I fancy Mouille Point of Richard Hannon’s to follow-up a recent win at the expense of Arctic Sea.
The extra half furlong and the experience should mean the Hannon filly taking another stride forward under Tom Marquand and I reckon she’ll relish this surface despite having won at Wolverhampton last time.
Overnight prices of around 4/1 look like great value for a horse which looks like rising through the handicap ranks even further.
4.20 Aintree (Liverpool Hurdle) – SAM SPINNER
Jedd O’Keefe could be on for a very big win here with his lovely six-year-old stayer Sam Spinner who for me was improving to a level significantly above these before tackling Cheltenham four weeks ago.
He was a little way behind main rival Wholestone in the Stayers’ Hurdle at the festival but that track and that meeting can catch out the best of them. Before that it is significant that he was masterful in winning around Haydock not too far from here on a flatter track and again when taking the Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot.
Yes, his Prestbury Park outing will have taken something out of him but his rivals were there too and I’d say that we will be looking back in a year’s time and wondering why there was even a debate about who was the best of this particular bunch, particularly in the mud.
5.15 Aintree (Grand National) – PLEASANT COMPANY
Even when asking the professionals for their picks you will end up with a longlist rather than a shortlist for your Grand National betting slip, but one I like in particular is Willie Mullins’ runner Pleasant Company.
Off the track for 79 days having pulled-up at Gowran, he arrives here fresh having missed the Cheltenham festival and that will have done him the world of good.
He’s a winner on heavy ground over more than three miles and ran OK in this race last year when conditions didn’t really suit him, so now as a 10-year-old with a few more runs under his belt we should see a much better horse.
At a general 33/1 overnight and with most firms paying at least 5 places (sometimes 6) he rates an excellent each-way bet to take the National and with it the first prize of an astonishing £500,000.
Watch out for good runs from the likes of Seeyouatmidnight, Ucello Conti and Milansbar too.
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