JJ Slevin’s William Hill blog: Panda Boy primed for Grand National

William Hill ambassador JJ Slevin talks through his rides at this year’s Grand National meeting, including Panda Boy in the big one on Saturday.

Aintree, Thursday

Intellotto (2.20pm)

It is a good race, and Sir Gino looks to be a very good horse. He missed out on Cheltenham which can only be an advantage I suppose, and he will be very hard to beat. My horse didn’t go to Cheltenham and has been targeted at this race. He will like the ground, and like the track. If he can be placed it would be a massive run I would say. The horse of Philip Fenton’s (Karl Des Tourelles) ran very well to finish second in the Grade Two at Fairyhouse last time, and he beat him very easily at Limerick last time. He has always coped well with tough going, and it is going to be pretty soft at Aintree. It will be tough enough work for these juveniles, but hopefully he will be fine with conditions. I don’t think there was anything amiss with him when he was beaten at Leopardstown, but hopefully we will see a better horse on his return to Grade One company here. He likes to be ridden with a bit of patience, and with that long straight at Aintree on soft ground he will be doing his best work late on hopefully. Joseph’s (O’Brien) other runner Nurburgring ran well to finish fourth in the Triumph Hurdle. He came home well that day and there is probably not much between the two horses.

Mongibello (5.15pm)

She is an Authorized mare that showed some good form in a Listed race at Navan and at Down Royal. She didn’t give her running the last day at Leopardstown. It is a big field, and a good looking bumper, but we are hoping for a good run. She is probably not a bad mare if she puts her best foot forward. Things just didn’t happen for her the last day, but we are hoping to see a different Mongibello on this occasion. She will be under the radar and she could be hidden away. Authorized can produce tricky ones, but she is a strong travelling classy mare, and I know they think quite a bit of her. If she puts her best foot forward she should hopefully be able to run above her odds.

Aintree, Saturday

Ailie Rose (1.20pm)

She has been a great mare for Stuart (Crawford). She is rated 136 now which is a career high mark for her. I won on her at Ayr at the start of this year and she is a very straightforward and tough mare. She has run some really solid races, including getting some black type, and is a lovely mare to have anything to do with. The weights might go up a little bit which means she would have just over 11st. She is at a career high mark, and I don’t know how she will operate off that, but she is a mare that keeps going out there and doing her thing. The ground at Ayr that she won on wasn’t as bad as it reads, but she has won on heavy ground before. In fairness to her she operates on anything. She put in an off day on her last start at Leopardstown, but every horse is capable of doing that.

Panda Boy (4.00pm)

I’m looking forward to the Grand National. It is a massive race and it is great to be part of it. It is great to be riding a horse in it that has a definite chance. There is definitely a different feel to the whole day compared to any other day racing. Even in the weighing room it feels different.

I think his profile suits the race, and the man that trains him (Martin Brassil) knows what it takes to win it having won it with Numbersixvalverde in 2006. He is sneaking in at the bottom of the weights so he is at the right end of the handicap. Hopefully he can get into a rhythm, and hopefully he will take to the fences, but we won’t know that until we get out over the first three. With it being heavy ground it is probably going to be a different Grand National to what we have been used to in recent years and it will be interesting to see what speed they go. If we can get into a nice rhythm, and get popping away, I think he will definitely stay. He is a real clean-winded horse that is always galloping away at the end of his races. He ran a very big race over hurdles the last day, and he ran a very good race in the Paddy Power Chase at Leopardstown over Christmas. When he gets that extreme trip I think that will really help him. I don’t know about the really soft ground, but he is getting stronger and coping better on it than he was once upon a time. It was soft enough at Leopardstown over Christmas, and it was soft enough back there the last day over hurdles.

He ran a big race in the Paddy Power Chase at Leopardstown last season when he was third, and he won a Pertemps Qualifier back there in 2021 so he has always had that capacity to stay well. He is only eight years old and he is only filling into his frame now as he is a big, old fashioned Irish chaser. He has needed all that time to get where he is now. In fairness to the lads that own him they have given him time to develop and mature and never pushed him. His fifth in the Irish National last season was a big run, but it is hard to say which way a horse will go. However he looks to have come along nicely and set things up well for the Grand National. They had the Aintree style fences up at the Curragh and we jumped him over the fences up there the other day and he seemed to enjoy it.

My record in the race from my three rides is not a healthy one. I pulled up on my first ride in it then fell on my next one and was unseated in last year’s race. I think he would be my best chance of riding the winner of the race as he ticks plenty of boxes.

It would be unreal to win the Irish National and Grand National in the same year. Tommy Carberry did it back in 1975 and Ruby Walsh did it in 2005, but I’m not thinking about that at the moment.