After three brilliant days at Aintree The Grand National Festival has now come to an end. Nonetheless there was some superb stand out performances that I believe made the festival exhilarating and one to remember.
The race that everyone had been waiting for all festival, Arguably the greatest race in the world, was the Randox Health Grand National and the stand out performance was the winner, One For Arthur at 14/1. This is horse became only the second Scottish winner of the big race and what a masterful performance it was. This horse was a silent assassin throughout the race and wasn’t really mentioned at all but with two fences to go came into the fold, with one big jump over the last, Jockey on board Derek Fox eased past the front runner and favourite Blaklion and sprinted over the line for Trainer Lucinda Russell. This was the performance of the week.
Another Performance that showed Authority and grace from a beautiful horse was Finian’s Oscar. This Horse was pulled out of Cheltenham due to a minor injury, but was fresh and ready for his race at Aintree in the Mersey Novices’ Hurdle. He breezed past the field with Jockey of the festival Robbie power on board and topped off a superb week for Colin Tizzard in a festival that he needed after not doing so well at Cheltenham. This horse is one to look out for the future and it looked like maybe missing the Cheltenham festival gave the horse that extra bit of energy on the Saturday.
In the Doom Bar Anniversary 4 Year Old Juvenile Hurdle the unbelievable Defi Du Seuil gave an outstanding performance to win it. Trainer Phillip Hobbs was over the moon with the win and in my opinion this horse is the best juvenile around at the moment. There was a lot of hype about this horse before the Cheltenham festival as it was unbeaten and it performed brilliantly there and it did the same again at Aintree, this time with the well experienced Barry Geraghty back on board after coming back from injury. This horse hasn’t put a foot wrong yet and will be exciting to see if he can be even better next year.
The race that a lot of punters were looking forward to was the Rematch between Might Bite and Whisper in the Mildmay Novices’ Chase for the Henderson camp after arguably the best race of the festival at Cheltenham. This race again did not disappoint with both of them Neck and neck with a hurdle to jump, but again the amazing Might Bite for Nico de Boinville came out on top, romping home to victory by two lengths, just showing what a dangerous horse this is. This horse is one to watch out for in the King George Stakes next year.
Finally my final pick of the meeting is the possibly the most frustrating horse around and that is Yanworth. When he is on form not a lot of people can beat him but when he doesn’t want to race, the horse puts in below par performances for Alan King. Nonetheless, in the Stayers Hurdle on Saturday Yanworth produced one of his best performances in winning the race for Jockey Barry Geraghty. This horse proved his worth over the meeting and can take confidence from this race into next season.
Photo Finish 