The Road to the Grand National 2018

Euronymous said:
Jesus ******* christ, will this **** weather never end. Aintree will be a horror show on deep ground and I won't be taking part. Looking forward to the flat now.
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Yes. We could be looking at a Red Marauder-Blowing Wind type of 'race'.

They should have postponed it that year but they're too afraid of the commercial consequences.
 
Yes, it was Smarty.

Put it down to age, GH.

Was Blowing Wind the one that fell and remounted then pulled up (in the same race)?
 
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Blowing Wind and Papillon were remounted and both finished iirc


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Yep.....3rd and 4th....last of those who completed.

Can't imagine this year's race will be anything like so attritional - the fences don't take as much jumping for a start.
 
On the likelihood of soft ground Bristol has to be backed at 6/1 for the Bowl. Would Henderson run the biter on soft ground again? Doubtful
 
granger said:
Belshill should of come here but such is the power of Willie
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Bellshill wasn't qualified for Aintree before the Irish Grand National, according to Ruby on RTE coverage just before the IGN. Something along the lines that to run at Aintree you need to be placed that season in a race over a certain distance, and due to the fact that the race Bellshill had run in that normally would have qualified him, there was some anomaly at that track that day which resulted in the distance of the race having to be trimmed - and that left it short of the qualifying distance required.
 
Actually..... Now that I think about it, I think it was pairofbrowneyes that Ruby made that statement about. He suggested that he would have more than likely gone to Aintree instead, but wasn't qualified.

I think you're right in that Bellshills no.1 target was always the Irish Grand National.
 
Chris Cook

When I spoke to Andrew Tulloch, Aintree’s clerk of the course, last night, he jokingly described the going on the Grand National course as “flippers and snorkels stuff”. But the good news is that he doesn’t foresee the race taking place on bad ground a week on Saturday, having been given quite a bit of hope by a dry forecast.<svg width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" class="inline-arrow-in-circle__svg inline-icon__svg"></svg>
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</aside> After 22mm of rain on Monday, Tulloch said: “It’s taken it well. The National’s probably soft, possibly heavy in the Canal Turn area. But once you get back across stands-side, you’re verging on good to soft, good, on some of that. With a bit of warmth, this course is like a piece of blotting paper. The Mildmay course is soft but probably tomorrow there’ll be more good to soft about it.”

Tulloch added that the weather hasn’t been as wet on Merseyside as it has in the south in recent weeks and said the forecast is for mostly dry weather into next week, with the temperature clambering into double-figures for some of the time. That’s what I also see in the forecast I use, perhaps 3mm of rain today being followed by five dry days.
So there’s at least hope that the Aintree race won’t descend into a proper slog with just four finishers. Now all we need are some starters. Today brings more bad news on that score, as Paul Nicholls reports As De Mee is out for the rest of the season with a leg injury, meaning Judi Dench will not own a National runner and half a dozen feature writers are frantically casting around for a new subject.

By my reckoning, that gives Milansbar and Bryony Frost a place in the National line-up, because five of the top 40 entrants have now been ruled out by connections: Cause Of Causes, Bellshill, Rathvinden, Acapella Bourgeois and As De Mee.
 
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After watching last year's race a couple of times over as bizarre as it sounds the only one that is probably give a shout too ignoring all other lines of form would be Saint Are. When i scanned the prices expecting to see 33/1 straight across the boards I noticed Bet365 are 66/1 5 places NRNB he may be an unlikely winner but I can't see any harm on having on side at that price.
 
Yep. In my notes I've written;

Excellent third last year arguably putting up a career best performance. Races off the same mark here so entitled to run just as well. Still not handicapped to win but could do so if others fail to run to form. Genuinely strong place prospects.
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