I’m a racing expert – here are my Aintree tips for Thursday’s festival card

Willie Mullins’ failure to put a meaningful dent in Dan Skelton’s trainers’ title ambitions has had a significant knock-on effect at Aintree on Thursday.

Last year, when the perennial Irish champion trainer was hell-bent on winning the British prize as well, he brought his A-team to Liverpool, including Lossiemouth and Gaelic Warrior, and duly swept the board in the four Grade Ones on the opening day.

His attention now (aside from Saturday’s Grand National) is turned more towards the season-concluding Punchestown festival and his domestic scrap with Gordon Elliott. He runs just three on the first day of the Grand National Festival, but none of them are anything like bankers.

So, this presents a wonderful opportunity for the rest and the biggest beneficiary is likely to be Nicky Henderson, who runs his two aces, Jango Baie and Lulamba, in the Bowl Chase and Manifesto Novices’ Chase.

Both lost out to Mullins at Cheltenham. Jango Baie was thrashed by Gaelic Warrior in the Gold Cup, but it was still a creditable showing and he won’t need to improve on it to see off Thursday’s opposition.

Proviso: as always at this Aintree fixture, there is the valid concern that Cheltenham exertions may have taken a toll. The gap between the festivals this spring has been the maximum four weeks, but repeat levels of performance still can’t be taken for granted.

Even the trainers aren’t sure. “It’s very hard to tell,” Henderson told The Racing Post this week. “They’re not machines. Jango Baie is showing the right signs at home, but he had a hard race at Cheltenham and there’s always that little bit you can’t gauge, an imponderable five or 10 per cent.”

Lulamba was also a Mullins victim in the Cotswolds, third behind two Closutton stablemates in the Arkle Trophy.

He might have won but for a late blunder and anyway, doesn’t have to face that pair again in the Manifesto Chase, run over a trip (two-and-a-half miles) that should suit him better.

The Aintree Hurdle is almost a re-run of the Champion Hurdle, the one glaring omission being Lossiemouth.

Now Brighterdaysahead (second), The New Lion (third), Alexei (fourth) and Golden Ace (fifth) are left to fight it out. There were only about three lengths between the quartet last month and this is a different challenge over an extra half mile on a very different track.

Still, I like the chances of Elliott’s Brighterdaysahead. She was the only one to give Lossiemouth anything to think about at Cheltenham and she did win stylishly on her only previous visit to Aintree (a Grade One in 2024), which should count for something.

My picks for Thursday at Aintree

• 1.45pm – Winston Junior (Best Bet)
• 2.20pm – Lulamba
• 2.55pm – Jango Baie
• 3.30pm – Unexpected Party
• 4.05pm – Brighterdaysahead (Next Best)
• 4.40pm – Jasko Des Dames (Each-Way)
• 5.15pm – Princess Day