The Grand National Festival gets underway in Aintree on Thursday and begins with four first-year students. Professional commentator Kevin Blake has three fantasies on the cards.
Aintree’s Grand National Festival is here. After a seemingly endless winter, the rain stopped and the taps were definitely turned on as Aintree sprayed copious amounts of water to keep the track as soft as desired. It promises to be another great few days of activity and I’d like to repeat it this week after this column had such a good time during the Cheltenham Festival.
The first race of the week over the Grand National fences is Thursday’s Open Hunters’ Chase (3:30) for Randox Foxhunters, trained by Mags Mullins. Let’s become champions A very interesting competitor. The 11-year-old has not had an easy time training over the past few years. Most of the four years separated him from a point-to-point win and his racetrack debut, but it was clear from the start that he had a lot of talent.
He improved his place over Henry de Bromhead and had his best day two years ago when he won a valuable handicap chase at the Punchestown Festival. He continued to play very well in the Galway Plate and Paddy Power Gold Cup at Cheltenham, highlighting his abilities.
Switching to Mags Mullins for hunter chasing purposes this season, he got off to a perfect start from point to point by beating Stuzzikini and Journey With Me in the Oldtown Open in February, and followed that up by lowering the colors of Hunters Yarn in the prestigious Tetratema Cup Hunters Chase at Gowran Park in March. The form of these two races has been well-advertised of late and ranks Lets Go Champ as one of Ireland’s better hunter-stalkers.
Use the Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Oliver Greenall and Josh Guerriero are looking for their biggest win yet from their training partnership. There are not one but two major Grand National fancies in Iroko and Jagwar.
Above all, what makes Lets Go Champ so attractive in this competition with his racing style? He is a strong forward in the middle distance travel which will equip him very well for the test this race presents. He is also a particularly good jumper with skills suited to these fences. His rider Sophie Carter has not been able to capitalize on her claim in this race, but she has ridden him to the last two wins and knows him well. He looks too expensive to me.
The Close Brothers Red Rum Handicap Chase (4:40) is always a very competitive race on paper but is trained by Paul Nicholls. no noise Winning the last two renewals has become easier. The BHA Handicap team also played their part. Because this horse is a particularly stark example of how cooperative British trained runners can be when it comes to handicapping.
After winning this race for the first time in 2024 at 130, Sans Bruit was acquitted several times on much higher scores, but the handicappers were then very generous in dropping him nine pounds to score four strokes under. Dropping 9 pounds for a horse who has just turned 7 years old to run 4 times under the mark is a very aggressive drop by normal standards.
After this extremely generous treatment, Paul Nicholls brought Sans Bruit back to this race exactly where he had started in the race a year earlier. He started 5-1 and duly came back to life and started again. If that wasn’t enough, Sans Bruit went to Plumpton 18 days later for a similarly valuable handicap chase and finished nine pounds higher.
Use the Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Last year’s winning jockey Patrick Mullins spoke to Martin Kelly after the 2026 Grand National weights were announced.
Now, that’s not comparing like with like, and it’s not even in the rulebook. But if this happens in Ireland there is a price to pay. Not only can the horse be expected to experience a particularly difficult rise, but it can also be expected to be extremely slow to fall back on after such a bountiful harvest. But not in the UK!
The BHA Handicap team were once again incredibly generous in dropping him 11lbs for 5 points which, unlike dropping Sans Bruit slowly, is not bad at all this season. Everyone could see that Sans Bruit was once again putting in the effort for this race, but the handicappers were happy to play along. How blatant this all is can be demonstrated by the fact that Sans Bruit was named a candidate for this race on the opening show, and I doubt he will go any shorter before he goes any longer.
I am reminded of a memorable quote from former BHA handicapper Phil Smith, who emphasized the importance of “favoring the majority at the expense of the minority” when it comes to handicapping. Whether or not Sans Bruit wins the Red Rum Handicap Chase for the third year in a row (and I very much hope he does) for the second year in a row, most will have the very valid question of asking how generously he has been treated by the handicappers.
The last race of interest of the day is Goffs Nickel Coin Mares’ National Hunt Flat Race (5:15), which, with no handicappers’ heavy hands to worry about, is quite a favorite for the Gavin Cromwell-trained looking Irish horse. lennon grove.
The five-year-old has plenty of experience, having won point-to-points on the bank and four bumper races. She won at Thurles in December, but her run of more interest was third in the Listed Fillies Bumper at Sandown in March.
In a race that looked set to pay to be seen, she was stuck at the rear and made a good late gain on the favored close side. Now that she’s got the black type, we can expect her to move forward a bit more and it wouldn’t be surprising to see her make more progress. She looks too expensive to me.
