Midnight is worth his Shot
IT IS the turn of the speedsters to take on the Grand National fences at Aintree today in the Topham Chase (4.05).
This is one of the most thrilling — if hard to solve — handicaps of the season and the changes to the fences over the past few years haven’t affected the trends, the most important being:
Last run within the past 34 days. Aged 10 or younger. An official rating of no lower than 136.
Carrying less than 11st 9lb. Not trained in Ireland. Having taken those vital stats into account we are down from 30 runners to a shortlist of three: Bouvreuil, Midnight Shot and Deauville Dancer. The best thing about
Bouvreuil is that he’s 5lb lower on official ratings than he has been during this season, but he doesn’t stay well enough.
MIDNIGHT SHOT comes into this afternoon’s contest in better form and is a solid jumper who hardly ever fails to run his race.
Despite him being a regular winner, he is still on a workable handicap mark and he should enjoy today’s ground.
The eight-year-old likes to be up with the pace, which is never a bad thing here, so have 2pts ew at 50-1 with Power.
DEAUVILLE
DANCER is a strong traveller who should also go well.
He’s ridden by a past winner, Brian Hughes, and is worth 2pts ew at 66-1 with Paddy Power.