Paul jacobs
Paul Jacobs with his Aintree selections
Naps expert with his selections for the Grand National
So with the Cheltenham Festival behind us, Aintree beckons and of course that means the greatest race of them all, the Grand National. With the weights at our behest and most of the leading protagonists having finalised their preparations the market has now taken on a more realistic shape.
He is a totally unoriginal choice to kick off my team of National fancies but ever since he won the 2018 National Hunt Chase at Prestbury Park I thought that RATHVINDEN was the perfect type for the big Liverpool contest.
The now 11-year-old gave every final ounce of his will power that day when given a really hard ride by Patrick Mullins.
So it was a very wise decision from his father to lay his charge off for 305 days until his surprise victory on his comeback when easing to a three and a half lengths success from Alpha Des Obeaux in the Bobbyjo Chase last month.
I think a mark of 154 is a fair enough rating for him here and being a very lightly raced ‘veteran’, 19 starts under rules and six wins from 13 outings over fences, Rathvinden has all the attributes to run well. He jumps well, stays thoroughly and has the added bonus of being able to race up with the pace having such a high cruising speed.
A top price of 20/1 is good enough for me and as long as there is some
give in the ground and he gets the luck in running imperative for the big race I find it hard to see him not being involved at the business end.
LAKE VIEW LAD is my other ‘shortie’ for Ainree and his staying on effort in the Ultima Handicap at Cheltenham on day one only further cemented my interest in him.
I am of the firm opinion that the nine-year-old could well be up to graded level next year after getting his act together this term over the larger obstacles.
Twice a faller in his formative years over timber, he has fenced with great accuracy this year and was cutting back both Beware The Bear and Vintage Clouds up the final climb at Cheltenham and of the three has the greatest room for improvement.
And so on to the bigger priced entries worth more than a second look. The 33/1 shot DOUNIKOS has the look of a horse laid out by Gordon Elliot for this year’s race and, with the proviso of good ground, this former grade two winning novice chaser finally found his mojo again some eight races later. Following three pulled up efforts, he landed the Grand National Trial at Punchestown in decisive fashion.
A full 7lbs higher in the weights here means a career best effort will be needed, but the further step up in distance may well enable him to find the requisite improvement required.
And finally we move on to the biggest of our quartet of selections MONBEG NOTORIOUS. He had looked a natural for this contest when securing an 11 length success in the 2018 Thyestes followed by a win in grade two company and a second behind The Storyteller in the the grade one Champion Novices Chase at the Punchestown Festival.
This season the son of Milan has taken his time to find his form being beaten an accumulative total of 169 lengths on his first two starts, initially travelling in touch before finding absolutely nothing under pressure.
My view was that Elliot was training him softly softly by using races to get him gradually fit, an opinion that seems to be coming to fruition after he stepped up dramatically on those efforts with an eye-ctaching sixth of 14 in the Leinster National on March 10th being beaten a shade over 17 lengths.
Despite being dropped to a rating of 150, he is still 13lbs higher than for his Thyestes success, but I think that hi maestro trainer has brought him beautifully to the boil here and he could be a big mover on the day from his current top price of a massive 80/1.