Three Irish Horses to Follow at Aintree on Thursday Day 1 of Aintree’s Grand National Festival takes place on Thursday and rather unsurprisingly, there’s plenty of Irish interest. With no fewer than four Grade 1s on the card, there’s loads of major prize money to plunder. Here we take a close look at three particularly interesting Irish raiders who each represent a different trainer. Fancy a Free Bet for Aintree? If you have signed up to William Hill, check out more of the best betting sites. 2.20 Aintree - Puturhandstogether @ 3/1 Joseph O’Brien’s four-year-old has had four starts over hurdles so far, winning twice, and placing in the other two. He jumped poorly when a 12-length third on his first start in this sphere at Punchestown and his finishing effort suffered as a result. Much better in the jumping department at Cork next time, he showed significant improvement to get off the mark and reverse the form with Turn And Finish, who had finished ahead of him at Punchestown. Puturhandstogether made a mockery of his handicap mark in the Hallgarten And Novum Wines Juvenile Handicap Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival. The son of Caravaggio was always travelling powerfully and put the race to bed with ease, scoring by six lengths. Clearly he’s much better than a 130-rated handicapper and 143 looks a little more reasonable. This race has cut up significantly and it’s now easy to make the case that he is the one to beat. 3.30 Aintree - Lossiemouth @ 7/4 It has been a bit of an up and down season for Willie Mullins’ Lossiemouth so far, as she began the campaign with a dominant defeat of Teahupoo in the Hatton’s Grace at Fairyhouse. She then looked below her best when never really travelling behind Constitution Hill in the Christmas Hurdle. More disappointment was to come as she fell in the Irish Champion Hurdle when everything was still to play for. Redeeming herself at Cheltenham however, she returned to her brilliant best to win the Mares’ Hurdle with relative ease and was fully in command at the end of the race. That perhaps tells us that 2m4f is her best trip and if she’s ever going to beat Constitution Hill, it will probably be over this distance. Adaptable with regards to ground, if there are any chinks in the favourite’s armour, Lossiemouth will be the one to exploit them. 5.15 Aintree - Seo Linn @ SP Better known as a shrewd operator on the Flat, Paddy Twomey’s runner has won two of her four bumper starts to date and looks very interesting in this Grade 2 event. She won a Ballinrobe bumper in good style back in August and was even eased down by her jockey in the closing stages. There was more to come at Cheltenham two starts later and she produced another dominant display to win a Listed contest for mares by five lengths and was always in control. The form looks pretty solid, with the second winning a Grade 2 over hurdles since and third has also scored subsequently. One would imagine a little bit of improvement may be required but she’s entitled to find it and the five-year-old looks like a major candidate here.
