Sam Twiston-Davies’ William Hill Blog: Dreams of a winner at Aintree

It’s meant to be Spring, but we’ve just had absolutely no break at all from the relentless rain. It’s normally t-shirts and shades weather at the upcoming Scottish National meeting at Ayr, but not this year!

Before we get there, though, we’ve got the Grand National Festival to look forward to, and I’m hoping to have a few nice chances among my rides on the first two days.

Thursday, Aintree

Let’s kick off with Park Princess in the Grade 2 mares’ bumper (5.15pm). She’s got some nice form, having  won first time out and following that up quite well with fourth place in a Listed bumper. Anthony Honeyball thinks she’s a bit better than she showed there, so we hope she can run well.

Friday, Aintree

In the three-mile novices’ chase is Broadway Boy (1.45pm). He’s fresh and well, having missed Cheltenham, but the good news is that he’s well and truly over that little bug he had. He goes to Aintree a fresh horse, whereas some of his opposition aren’t, having run at Cheltenham. I think his current price is quite fair, because he does have a bit to find on ratings with some of the others, but we’re hoping that he’s little bit better than his rating. We’d like to see a big run from him. Willie put some cheekpieces on, just to sharpen him up, and we’ll see what he can do on the day.

After that, we have Guard Your Dreams in the 2m4f handicap hurdle (2.20pm). He was disappointing at Cheltenham, but we’re hoping for better this time. He seems fine at home, so hopefully he will run a little bit more like himself. On all known form, we think he’s well handicapped, but we did also think that at Cheltenham!

Lump Sum is next in the Top Novices’ Hurdle (2.55pm). He’s a really nice, progressive horse who unfortunately also had a little bug before Cheltenham, so the Festival was a no-go. He’s got some good form, though, and everyone is very happy with him at home, so hopefully he will turn up and run a big race.

In the Topham we have Good Boy Bobby (4.05pm). He’ll be a big price, but he has experience over the fences, deals well with bad ground and, when it becomes a real test, he does stay well. He’s got a lot of notable ticks, but it is the Topham and, therefore, a hard race to win. At his age, it might be quite tough, but I can see him running a bold race.