All Eyes On Aintree
April 1st, 2016 | Marten's Current Racing Diary
Having despatched the copy for my Dark Horses Annual to the Racing Post’s designer on Wednesday my mind now has to switch back to the jumps, with the next few days devoted to finding some value for the three-day Aintree meeting.
Everything seemed to go according to plan for the Willie Mullins team at Cheltenham, and it is not welcome news for those of us that like to take on the short ones that he plans to bring many of his Festival winners over again for Aintree – almost certainly with the British Trainers’ Title uppermost in mind.
Mullins is currently just over £100,000 behind his main rival Paul Nicholls, so with almost £3 million of prize-money to be won next week it is no wonder that the bookmakers make him as short as 1/3 to win the title with Paddy Power.
As we know from recent experience Mullins is perfectly capable of changing his mind at any time, but at the moment he hopes to run Annie Power, Nichols Canyon, Vautour, Don Poli, Black Hercules and possibly Douvan. With Thistlecrack currently 1/3 for the Liverpool Hurdle and Cue Card 11/10 for the Aintree Bowl this could be another profitable meeting for favourite backers.
The value may be found in the handicaps, so I will be focusing in that area in the Online Previews. There are a handful of horses I am keen for us to be with.
This year we are introducing a new element to the service entitled the Postscript. This new service, which is included in the price, will be sent to subscribers with my observations and information gleaned from the day’s racing with pointers for the future. It will be available in various formats including download and email.
The Aintree Online Preview is published in three parts, available to view on Wednesday evening at 8.00pm and later, at 11.00pm on Thursday and Friday to allow me time to get back from the racing.
Just switching back to the Flat, invariably a few horses from my Annual run in the time between submission of the text and publication.
Two that appeared in recent days were Lapilli, who won a 5f maiden for William Haggas in very good style at Wolverhampton yesterday, and the night before Biodynamic won a 1m 3f maiden at Kempton on Tuesday. Both horses have the potential to earn black type at some point this season.
I will be back here with more thoughts for you on Sunday.
Bye for now
Marten
