Gavin Cromwell
Gavin Cromwell’s William Hill blog: Aintree Grand National Festival preview
William Hill ambassador Gavin Cromwell previews his runners across all three days of the Aintree Grand National Festival, including the Grand National itself.
Aintree, Thursday
We’ll have six runners across the three days at Aintree this year, starting off with one on Thursday. We run Lennon Grove in the Grade 2 mares’ bumper (17:15). She ran a nice race to finish third at Sandown the last day and that was on ground that she wouldn’t have enjoyed.
She’ll love the better ground around Aintree and the track should suit here. She’s a pacey mare and although it’s hard to draw a line with the British horses’ form, I think she should be up to running well and getting in the places.
Aintree, Friday
We have three runners on Friday, all of which are in the Topham (16:05). Will The Wise comes here off the back of a big run in the Plate. He was second to Madara there and is six pounds better off with him here, but you have to wonder that’ll be enough to make the difference given how convincing Madara’s win was.
That said, I think the National fences will really suit our lad. He schooled over them last week at the Curragh where they have a couple of Aintree-style fences, and he looked very good. I imagine we’ll look to be positive and use his jumping to our advantage again. I’d probably lean towards him being our best chance of the week.
Addragoole steps up in trip after his run in the Plate. He travelled around well, but just didn’t pick up and Keith Donoghue suggested stepping him up in trip and dropping him might just bring out a bit more. That’s what we’re likely to do here.
He’s a good jumper and I think he’s up to running well, but I wouldn’t say he was necessarily off a good mark. That said, he’s a young horse and hopefully he can progress up in trip.
It has been a tricky season for The King Of Prs. He won a big handicap in the Dan & Joan Moore last year and he went up in the weights for that. The handicapper had his say and it’s been tough for him since. He has been in good form at home though, so hopefully he can put in a good run.
Aintree, Saturday
We finish off our week with two runners in Grand National (16:00). Final Orders comes here off the back of winning at the Cheltenham Festival. That was an unbelievable performance in the Cross Country and on ratings he does look well handicapped now. Whether that tells on the day though, I’m not certain.
He got a fine ride from the front and his jumping was such an asset to him there, and I’m not sure you can gain that many lengths jumping in the National. It’ll be hard for him to get things his way here and it is a much different test.
He’ll love the ground as he did at Cheltenham and he has a good lot of pace, so he should be able to travel through the race. He’s in here off a nice light weight, he’s in great form and I’m hoping he has a chance.
We also run Perceval Legallois, who ran in the race last year and was unlucky to come down at the ninth fence when he was going well enough.
We haven’t had the best of seasons with him and he’s been struggling to trouble the judge. He won a big handicap chase at Leopardstown last season and hasn’t been too well handicapped over fences since.
He is in good form though and, like last year, I think the conditions should suit him. He has the pace for the race and with a clear round of jumping I’m hoping he can run well.
