Today's best bets, by Chris Cook
I do enjoy today's Pontefract card, which is hard to unscramble with its big fields of horses we haven't seen since autumn, but provides a welcome distraction from the post-Aintree blues. I think I've found a fair bet at 9-2 in Quickaswecan (3.10), from the Mark Johnston yard that has been averaging a winner a day for the past fortnight.
This one was highly tried as a juvenile, taking in two Tattersalls Millions races and faring respectably before being found a winnable opportunity in a Brighton maiden. That was his first time on soft and he seemed to relish it, as family connections suggested he should.
An appreciation of soft is going to be important at Pontefract today and he should also benefit from his stall two draw over this six-furlong trip. I think he's the type to show improved form this year and conditions should help him to show it in a way they did not when he was third of five on his handicap debut at Wolverhampton.
In the Jamaican Flight, a staying handicap, Madam Lilibet (3.40) looks overpriced at double-figure odds, since she's only 2lb higher than when scoring over course and distance in October. It was heavy that day but she doesn't need a bog, having won on good to soft the time before.
It may also be worth keeping an eye on the maiden race at 2.40pm, bearing in mind that it was won last year by Libertarian, who followed up in the Dante at 33-1. "To be fair, this is our Derby horse," I believe Karl Burke told reporters afterwards.
But I haven't quite moved on from the events of Saturday yet. In an effort to learn what I can from the Grand National result, I've made some notes about how various runners fared and what conclusions might be drawn.
In an ideal world, we'd all spend time poring over every result, rather than moving on hastily because our fancy got stuffed. But time is short and there are 10,000 of these things every year.
Anyway, for what it's worth, here are my National musings. Please do add your own/contradict mine through the comments section.
Saw out the trip:
Pineau De Re
Balthazar King
Double Seven
Could have used another mile:
Alvarado
Raz De Maree
Did not stay:
Rocky Creek
Chance Du Roy
Buckers Bridge
The Package
Mr Moonshine
Prince De Beauchene
Hunt Ball
Vintage Star
Walkon
Colbert Station
Not good enough at the weights on the ground:
Monbeg Dude
Swing Bill
Kruzhlinin
Vesper Bell
Hawkes Point
Lion Na Bearnai
Shakalakaboomboom
Triolo D'Alene
Quito De La Roque
Wayward Prince
Unlucky:
Tidal Bay
Really quite appallingly unlucky:
Across The Bay
Unlucky for the second year in a row:
The Rainbow Hunter
Evidence that the new National may still not be entirely safe for horses who won their first steeplechase the previous season:
Twirling Magnet
One In A Milan
Mountainous
Rose Of The Moon
Our Father
Always remembering that another horse fitting that description would be:
Pineau De Re
Fell or unseated, having done it before:
One In A Milan
Golan Way
Long Run
Big Shu
Twirling Magnet
Fell or unseated having never done it before (point-to-points excluded):
Last Time D'Albain
Mountainous
Teaforthree
Wayward Prince
Burton Port
Rose Of The Moon
Our Father
Other business:
i) Since 1975, only two horses have won the National in blinkers or visor.
ii) Six horses wore first-time headgear in this National. Only two finished, 8th and 12th.
iii) By the time of the next National, it will be six years since the last winner who was younger than 10.
iv) Since 1989, 64 horses have carried 11-7 or more in the National, including previous winners and 11 that started at 10-1 or shorter. All failed. No horse has won with such a burden since 1977.
v) The first four horses on Saturday had all previously won a handicap chase in a field of 13 or more.
vi) French-breds, which used to be thought unsuited to the National, have won three of the last six.
vii) A quarter of Saturday's runners were Irish-trained but only one made the first seven. No such horse has won for seven years.
Tipping competition, day two
Our winners so far:
Monday
Arrowzone 7-1
Heezararity 16-1
Lady Yeats 9-2
And our leader is:
orso +10.50
... who was the only one to pair Arrowzone with Lady Yeats, though his first tip wouldn't have counted if he had been a minute later posting it! No one found Heezararity.
Today, we'd like your tips, please, for these races: 3.10 Pontefract, 3.20 Carlisle, 4.15 Pontefract.
This week's prize is a copy of Timeform's latest annual, Racehorses of 2013, a doorstopping compendium of every horse that raced on the Flat in Britain and Ireland last year, with essays on many of them, running to more than 1,200 pages. It costs £79 and Tony Paley reviewed it here and, if you don't win, you can buy a copy here.
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. If you have not joined in so far this week, you are welcome to do so today but you will start on -3.
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!
Click here for all the day's racecards, form, stats and results.
And post your tips or racing-related comments below.
