With the Aintree Grand National Festival entering its second day, our horse racing tipster gives his selections for the highly popular Ladies Day.
Heart Wood (1:45pm, Novices’ Chase)
On paper this is a seemingly quite weak Grade 1 race, with the best form being premier handicap winners. The best of the bunch is likely a horse that didn’t go to Cheltenham in Heart Wood.
The six-year-old gelding out of the Henry de Bromhead yard won last time out at Leopardstown on February 4. He was in the lead and looked to be travelling the best when approaching the last.
Despite making a mistake, he was left clear in front when his rival fell and Heart Wood showed he had plenty left in the tank when powering to the line after recovering. It would have been highly unlikely that any of his rivals would have been able to prevent him winning even if they had stayed on all fours. And he can cement that form today by winning on his first outing in Britain.
Lump Sum (2:55pm, Novices’ Hurdle) E/W
Willie Mullins’ Mystical Power is the obvious pick for this race after coming second to Slade Steel at Cheltenham. However, another horse that didn’t go to Cheltenham may be able to deliver an upset at a nice price.
A six-year-old gelding from the Sam Thomas yard, Lump Sum has only found a healthy Jeriko Du Reponet too good for him in his jumps career so far. That was at Doncaster on January 27 on good ground and he has since confirmed his form against the third from that race, Fiercely Proud.
He jumped into the lead at the second last at Kempton on February 24 in testing conditions before pulling away from his rival on the flat. The ability to stay on well in testing conditions will be key today and he can battle on to place and even possibly win the whole thing.
Pic D’Orhy (3:30pm, Melling Chase)
Winner of this race last year, nine-year-old gelding Pic D’Orhy out of the Paul Nicholls yard did not go to Cheltenham so he could come here fresh and not overworked.
His last race was the Ascot Chase on February 17, when he jumped well throughout and handily beat L’Homme Presse and the rest of the field who just had no answer to such an impressive display.
The going that day was good to soft but he does have form in soft conditions as that was the going for this race last year.
If he’s able to compile another round similar to that Ascot performance, this field could also simply have no answer for him.
