GRAND NATIONAL COUNTDOWN: Daqman continues his Grand National countdown by filtering down Saturday’s field based on ratings and age criteria.
322 MONDAY: Daqman went close yesterday when all three of his selections were placed. He bids to hit the target with three Tuesday selections, including a nap at Wolverhampton.
LUCKY 13 IN THE GRAND NATIONAL
⭕ 4.00 Aintree, Saturday (Grand National): IF this is more like a Gold Cup, and the going is not holding soft or heavy, then one of the higher ratings will succeed, within the parameters of progressive quality: AGE and WEIGHT no older than 9, carrying 10st 5lb to 11st 9lb (above 150 rated).
That deletes (down the card) some hot fancies in the 2023 King George winner, Hewick, last year’s National winner and third, I Am Maximus and Minella Indo, plus Bravemansgame, Threeunderfthrufive, Appreciate It, Chantry House, Coko Beach, Conflated, Royal Pagaille, Vanillier, Hyland, Meetingofthewaters, Three Card Brag and Idas Boy.
163 GRANGECLARE WEST (Willie Mullins): chases 2-6; no falls. The 66-1 2nd in the Irish Gold Cup.
163 NICK ROCKETT (Willie Mullins): chases 3-8; no falls. Officially improved a stone on his Sandown Gold Cup third last Spring, winning this year’s Thyestes and Bobbyjo chases.
157 MINELLA COCOONER (Willie Mullins): chases 2-11; no falls: 3rd in the Irish Grand National (heavy) at the beginning of last April and won the Sandown Gold Cup (good) at the end of that month
157 STUMPTOWN (Gavin Cromwell): chases 7-20 (no falls), including the December and March cross-countrys at Cheltenham over 3m 5f+ plus two banks races over 3m+ in May and November.
156 BEAUPORT (Nigel Twiston-Davies): chases 3-11; falls 1. Won the 2024 Midlands Grand National on heavy and the Berkshire National at Ascot on good.
156 HITMAN (Paul Nicholls): chases 3-23; falls 1. Placed 17 times up to 3m.
153 PERCIVAL LEGALLOIS (Gavin Cromwell): chases 2-9 (falls 2); never raced beyond 3m; won the valuable big-field handicap at Leopardstown over Christmas on good/yielding.
152 IROKO (Oliver Greenall and Josh Guerriero): never won beyond 2m 4f; chases 1-7; falls 1.
152 KANDOO KID (Paul Nicholls): chases 2-9; falls 0. Farthest traveled when won the Newbury Gold Cup (3m 2f) in November and took the Topham Trophy over the National fences.
151 INTENSE RAFFLES (Thomas Gibney): chases 3-9 (no falls), all three strikes at Fairyhouse, including Irish Grand National on heavy last Spring.
151 SENIOR CHIEF (Henry De Bromhead): chases 2-6, no falls. Well behind Kandoo Kid at Newbury.
150 BROADWAY BOY (Nigel Twiston-Davies): chases 3-10; no falls. Won Grade 3 at Cheltenham soft; second to Kandoo Kid in the Newbury Gold Cup on good to soft; both 3m 2f.
150 FIL DOR (Gordon Elliott): chases 2-14; no falls. Not won in big field since 2022.
ROARING HOME LION
⭕ 4.30 Kempton today Lions Peak is progressing nicely and can continue the excellent recent form of his trainer Jamie Snowdon who is now 5 winners from his last 13 runners.
Lions Peak is making his handicap debut here but doesn’t look overly harshly treated off a mark of 107 and is much preferred to his out of form main Betdaq Betting Exchange rival Royal Way who is 9lb higher in the weights.
Lions Peak finished a good third at Wincanton in February on soft ground but then did even better when storming home by eight lengths at Hereford on the same good ground forecast today.
He might have most to fear from the consistent Prolific Profile who also loves the quicker ground. He won three in a row at the back end of last season and despite the rise in the weights has run well enough in better class races since at Aintree and Doncaster.
…. AND ROARING HOME ROBBO
⭕ 4.48 Lingfield Urban Sprawl isn’t getting much help from the handicapper and a further 2lb rise casts doubt on whether his current form sequence of 5-434282 can be improved upon.
I’ll take a chance on Robbo who I think is running a little better than his form figures suggest and was beaten less than two lengths when fifth over course and distance last time out. That looked a better class race than this one.
…. ONE MORE JUNGLE ROAR
⭕ 7.00 Wolverhampton Jungle Land won nicely over course and distance last week and still looks capable of further improvement on the all-weather which might offset his 5lb penalty here.
Most of his rivals look in the grip of the handicapper and/or out of form.
Cargin Bhui definitely has ability but is expensive to follow and is now tried in cheekpieces for the first time after blinkers had no impact last time (last of 10).
DAQMAN’S BETS on Betdaq Betting Exchange
4.30 Kempton (win 10)
BET 5.5pts win LIONS PEAK
4.48 Lingfield (win 10)
BET 2.5pts win ROBBO
7.00 Wolverhampton (win 10, nap)
BET 6.25pts win JUNGLE LAND
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