Nigel
Twiston-Davies has trained two Grand National winners in the past and
is fancied by bookmakers to land the hat-trick this year. The 171st
running of the famous steeplechase returns to Aintree racecourse on
Saturday 14th April as the sport’s biggest names aim to
save a place in the history books.
One For Arthur
won the race last year off a bumper SP 14/1 but he misses out on a
shot at two-in-a-row through injury and Team Twiston-Davies have the
early favourite with their Blaklion priced as jolly across the board,
no more than 12/1 trading following the conclusion of the Cheltenham
Festival.
The supremely
talented nine-year-old gelding brings form to the Liverpool track and
it’s little surprise to see traders falling over themselves to keep
the bay close. Past runnings of this race prove it’s always worth
taking the favourite on with a lively outsider and, with Blaklion
winning only one of his last nine, there’s reason to look further
down the pecking order.
Here are two
hopefuls at a bigger price that should give backers a run for their
stake money:
Gold Present is
sure to be popular with those who like to keep the trends of this
race in mind with the Nicky
Henderson representative ticking all the right boxes. As an
eight-year-old, he falls into line with two of the last three
champions, One For Arthur and Many Clouds, who are also
eight-year-old winners.
He’s also
available at 25/1 and that has been the price of half of the last
four victors. Saw a two-run purple patch come to an end when
pulled-up in the Ultima Handicap Chase by Nico de Boinville at
Cheltenham but we can forgive him that, as a losing effort in the run
before Aintree has been a feature of past National winners.
The clues say
he’ll go close and the price makes him easy to take a chance on.
Rathvinden is
another who will find friends in the betting ring before this year’s
4m 3f slog over 30 fences and he arrives with confidence to burn
following a winning effort at Prestbury Park. Willie Mullins saddles
this 10-year-old, who has been chalked up at 33/1 to book another
appearance in the winner's enclosure.
He's an outsider
but he has already proven his passion for
upsetting the horse racing betting odds, claiming the
National Hunt Challenge Cup over 3m 7f in March.
With race
favourite Jury Duty getting rid of Jamie Codd that day, Rathvinden
took full advantage to drag nearest finisher Ms Parfois home by ½ a
length. That success means he has never finished outside of the
places when managing to stay on his feet.
Eight wins,
three seconds and a couple of bronze medals go against four failures
to finish, including unseating Patrick Mullins in the Flogas
Novice Chase at Leopardstown in February. If he gets around, he
should go close and will catch the eye of each-way backers.