News and best bets for the Irish Grand National and a new tipping competition in our daily horse racing blog
Today's best bets, by Chris Cook
It's Irish Grand National day! Pretty exciting, what? Except, maddeningly, we don't know whether the favourite will be in the line-up and we won't know for sure until 1.35pm, an hour before the first race at Fairyhouse.
Beautiful Sound is the second reserve and the odds are clearly stacked against the possibility of two withdrawals from the 26 above him. But you can't rule it out and, in the meantime, the bookies are forced to bet as if he were a live runner. That means there will be Rule 4 deductions from all winning bets placed before 1.35pm, if he doesn't make the line-up.
In those circumstances, it's not terribly tempting to have a bet this morning. I would have thought that this arrangement must drive the bookies potty by depressing turnover and I can see very little sense in it. Surely we want certainty as to the final field from the day before, at the very latest?
Beautiful Sound was a keeping-on third in the Byrne Group Plate at the Cheltenham Festival, when he was given plenty to do by Jason Maguire, though he may have lacked the pace to be much handier. This longer trip will suit better and he must be a deserving favourite. Gordon Elliott also has Backstage in the race and can withdraw him to ensure Beautiful Sound gets in if there is just one other non-runner.
On the assumption that he won't get in, I'm going with Hughies Grey (4.55), who got off the mark over fences in the Ulster National last month. He then proved a revelation by following up in a Grade Two at Navan over a mile shorter trip and despite fluffing the last.
Seven-year-olds may struggle in the Aintree equivalent but they do well in this National and the strong upward curve of Hughies Grey's form is very appealing to me, even though he's been fired up the weights for it. In absolute terms, he still only has 10st 9lb to carry and 25-1 seems too big.
Mahmood Al Zarooni is finding the net from all angles at the moment, sending out six winners from 13 runners in the past fortnight, and I like the look of his Double Dealer (4.15) in Yarmouth's seven-furlong handicap.
This colt didn't seem to be anything terribly exciting when he won a Goodwood nursery last backend but he won that despite failing to settle and he seemed to have progressed when making his reappearance at Kempton. The winner had flown by the time he was in the clear that day but he ran on strongly to be second and is surely well treated on the same mark.
Tipping competition - a new week
Congratulations to stee33, winner of last week's foreshortened competition on a score of +13. Our commiserations to MauriceNL, who ended on the same score, having picked Joker Choker (10-1) on Thursday, but posted his final-day tips 12 minutes after his rival.
This week's prize is, unusually, an Easter egg! This one in fact, kindly provided by Hotel Chocolat in exchange for just �24. Be the envy of your friends, who will already have eaten theirs!
To kick things off, we'd like your tips, please, for these races: 3.50 Market Rasen, 4.45 Warwick, 4.55 Fairyhouse.
As ever, our champion will be the tipster who returns the best profit to notional level stakes of �1 at starting price on our nominated races, of which there will be three each day up until Friday. Non-runners count as losers.
In the event of a tie at the end of the week, the winner will be the tipster who, from among those tied on the highest score, posted their tips earliest on the final day.
For terms and conditions click here.
Good luck!
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2011/apr/25/irish-grand-national-2011
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