Great Racing At Aintree!

There are no runners from Pond House today but we can all look forward to more fantastic action from Aintree.  We did have entries on the flat at Leicester today originally but with the ground having turned heavy we decided not to declare them.  There is a jumps card at Sedgefield this afternoon while they also race on the flat at Southwell and in Ireland they have a jumps card at Ballinrobe and an all-weather flat card at Dundalk.  Fergus Gillard travels to Sedgefield for one ride in their final race of the day, a two mile handicap hurdle.  He rides Lovin Jukebox for Donald McCain and he looks to have a good chance according to the betting.  The horse was second at the track on his latest start and at 7/2 hopefully he can make Fergus’ long journey worthwhile.

You could not fail to be impressed by the Nicky Henderson trained pair of Shishkin and Constution Hill yesterday while I was delighted for the Chris Barber and Will Biddick team winning the Foxhunters with Famous Clermont, a west country produced point to pointer.  Unfortunately Martin McIntyre’s horse did not seem to enjoy his try over the National Fences.  He cleared the first few well enough but did not look to be enjoying it and ‘Fly’ ended up pulling him up as the runners headed away from the stands.  While there is no Shishkin or Constitutional Hill on today’s Aintree card, there is plenty of graded action to look forward to.  Gerri Colombe is a short price to win the opening Mildmay novices chase and despite getting beaten at Cheltenham I think he can put that right today.  It looks harder to pick winners in the other races with some big field handicaps which include 30 horses going to post for the Topham over the Grand National fences at 4.05pm.  The betting looks wide open with the Becher Chase winner, Ashtown lad possibly just shading favouritism but I don’t have any strong fancies in this race, I think it will be just a watching brief for me!

Declarations were made for the Grand National yesterday and we have a full field of 40 declared with Any Second Now heading the weights and the last horse to get in being Born by the Sea at number 40.  For the first time this year there are no reserves so I just hope all 40 head to post come 5.15pm on Saturday afternoon otherwise it will be such a shame if there are less than the maximum allowed taking part come the start of the big race.  Corach Rambler just heads the betting from Delta Work and Noble Yeats and my £5 bet might be on Delta Work who is my idea of the winner.  The Cheltenham Festival Cross Country winner of the last two years has been targeted for the race by connections who know how to win it but whoever you are, you need a bit of luck!

Last night in the football, Manchester United drew with Sevilla 2-2.

My friend Jack claims he can communicate with vegetables. Jack and the beans talk!  Happy Friday!