13:45

A grade 1 novice chase starts the 3 day Aintree Festival off and the majority of the horses in this field have had a pretty active campaign.

 

Pic D'Orhy goes in currently as market favourite at time of writing. Paul Nicholls has repeated said several times this season he is targeting Aintree festival in a big way. Given how few he had a Cheltenham. Pic D'Orhy has done well this season but is prone to an error here and there. Weather is a bit up in the air at the moment and wouldn't want it soft as all his best form seems on good.

 

Jacamar only ran at the weekend gone at Ayr and was well beaten difficult to see him getting involved considering the turn around. Erne River is on a hatrick of wins and is on a roll however this is a step up in opposition. Although he did beat Beakstown couple of races back and Beakstown won last weekend up Ayr a nice pot. So that form line looks strong.

 

Gin On Lime is back from a break and gets weight all round here with the mares allowance and has won from long breaks before she shouldn't be lightly dismissed though she jumped right at Cheltenham last time out which maybe a problem here.

 

Colin Tizzard is double handed here with The Widdow Maker who I think could be an outsider each way play. However, my selection is War Lord. War Lord has run on a variety of grounds this season and ran with credit in the Arkle. don't think War Lord had a hard race as such and won't mind the ground whatever it comes up as. Colin Tizzard has had a few winners last couple of weeks and bar last season usually do well at this Aintree meeting. War Lord offers a bit more value and i would say is a little more battle hardened compared to the Pic D'Orhy

 

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