Aintree Bowl Preview

The Aintree Bowl is one of the main supporting races at the Grand National meeting and this year’s renewal looks red hot with a number of strong Cheltenham Festival performers contesting for honours.

Riverside Theatre is likely to go off favourite and Nicky Henderson’s charge has to be at the top of punters’ shortlists following his excellent win in the Ryanair Chase.

Owned by actor Jimmy Nesbitt, the horse got home really well up the Cheltenham hill and the step up to three miles over a flatter course is likely to suit providing he has come out of the Festival in good knick.

Riverside Theatre’s form line, overall, looks particularly strong and he has beaten the high class Medermit twice now this season although Alan King’s grey may be ready to turn the tables this time around.

The Barbury Castle handler has been desperate to step his Haldon Gold Cup winner up to three miles for quite some time and there is a genuine feeling that Medermit could be a potential Gold Cup horse in the making.

The eight-year-old stayed on in his traditional fashion at Cheltenham only to be narrowly denied again however he may now start to get his head in front more regularly over staying trips.

Medermit has, however, tended to race more effectively at Cheltenham than any other course and it is debatable whether Aintree will fully bring out the best in him.

The season’s big improver Hunt Ball lines up against the big guns for the first time in his career and anything could be possible for Keiran Burke’s seven-year-old who began the national hunt campaign off a lowly mark of just 69.

Since a November victory at Folkestone, Hunt Ball has risen in excess of six stone in the handicap courtesy of a further half dozen wins which included success in the Pulteney Land Novices Chase at the Festival.

That triumph was arguably Hunt Ball’s easiest to date and it would be no surprise to see him make his presence felt in proper graded company for the first time.

Of the remainder, Ryanair Chase runner-up Albertas Run holds decent claims however it is debatable whether the hike back up in distance will do Jonjo O’Neill’s stable star justice.

Age may be catching up with the eleven-year-old who is unlikely to better his recent Cheltenham effort where he ran out of his skin.

Nacarat is evidently a danger to the rest of the field at lengthy odds and a reproduction of his Racing Post Chase win at Kempton would make the grey very hard to beat.

He did, nevertheless, get things all his own way up front that day and that is unlikely to happen here with better quality animals in opposition.

Time For Rupert went fairly well for a long way in the Gold Cup and could be a decent each way shout, whilst Roberto Goldback carries useful form from Ireland.

Weird Al and Diamond Harry will have to bury disappointing recent efforts to figure and Poquelin appears out of his depth in this kind of race.

Go To bet365

#Ad

09/04/2012     © Frixo 2024