Aintree Betting Preview for Thursday Part 1
- By A.J. Ryder on April 7, 2015 19:41 GMT
The big meeting at Aintree kicks off this week and, while many people across the world are focusing exclusively on the National race which happens on Saturday, there is a stellar few days of racing set to unfold with a number of very tricky races for punters to decipher. Luckily, this is the type of meeting that can produce some very good value prices as things can get a little thrown off as people chase performances at Cheltenham - which usually brings some other contenders into the mix.
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Thursday’s action kicks off at 1:40 with the Manifesto Novices’ Chase - a Grade 1 contest going 2m4f. There is a lot of good form coming into the race with a good portion of these contenders being well rated and sitting on a few recent victories. One that catches the eye quite quickly is seven-year-old Oscar Rock who lines up for Malcolm Jefferson.
The son of Oscar has rattled off a pair of wins in a row since February and the last one was particularly interesting with a nine length victory when sent off at a 5/4 price tag in a Class 2 novice handicap chase. That’s the type of race you want to see coming into the big step up to Grade 1 and the ratings indicate that we’ll have some weight to work with here and a decent price should be assured as well.
The horse has only finished outside of the top 3 on a single occasion and that was in a sixteen strong Grade 3 at Haydock Park back in November. He is Grade 1 and Grade 2 placed over hurdles so possesses a good measure of speed. Look for him to make a much bigger impression than many might think.
In the Betfred Anniversary 4-Y-O Juvenile Hurdle at 2:15, we have another very tricky field going 2m1f in this Grade 1 contest. This one looks to be about Nicky Henderson’s Hargam who ran a credible third at Cheltenham with AP McCoy in the irons when he contested the JCB Triumph Hurdle. Peace and Co ultimately won the race but he was able to muster up a good performance and still deliver for punters at an 8/1 price tag on the each-way.
