This is the feature race of the meeting for me and it is all about one horse, one trainer and one owner with his band of merry men!

In a time when many people make Cheltenham the be all and end all, John Queally and Michael Ryan have made this race their own over three of the last four years. On top of the Anniversary Hurdle they won as a 4yo Al Eile really is an Aintree Legend and it is a shame his achievements are never covered properly as all the column inches are targetted towards the National.

Al Eile has always been a horse I have liked but since meeting his connections at the WBX.COM Fighting Fifth Hurdle in 2007 I have developed a closer affinity to the horse. He is a specialist 2m4f Hurdler and with conditions to suit he will take all the beating for me.

The current joint favourite is Celestial Halo, on the back of his fantastic run in the Champion Hurdle. However, I think he had a hard race that day and he saves his best for the undulations of Cheltenham and a sharper track at Aintree wont suit him. He rates as a win lay on WBX.COM for me.

If the ground was softer I would have to give a strong fancy for Catch Me. However, he does seem to thrive on softer ground and connections will be sorry having missed Cheltenham for today.

Fiveforthree would probably want softer ground and slightly further at a track like Aintree after his encouraging reappearance a few weeks ago. Anyone fancying him would have to be concerned about the bounce factor and Ruby Walsh appears to have chosen Celestial Halo instead.

Franchoek, could well take a hand at bigger odds and could rate a good place bet on WBX.COM at a bigger price. He ran a good race at Cheltenham, on New Years Day, when just getting outstayed having looked the likely winner turning for home. He strikes me as a horse who might have benefitted from some time off between New Years Day and The Festival and it wouldnt surprise me to see him run well here.

However, I think the likeliest challenger to Al Eile will come in the shape of Solwhit trained by a very shrewd trained in Charlie Byrnes. He has improved and his flat form this season has been very very good. What appeared a disappointing defeat at the hands of ninetieth minute on his penultimate run has been shown to be ok with the winners win in the Coral Cup and he could rate as a good place bet on WBX.COM.

I dont think Jered jumps well enough to win a Grade 1 race against older horses and he rates a good win and place lay on WBX.COM.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 4th, 2009 at 12:38 pm and is filed under Aintree 2009. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.