Aintree Grand National meeting: second day

the Grand National meeting continues today with another excellent card and the ground drying our rapidly. Once again the question is to what extent the Cheltenham form holds up - and as yesterday´s results make clear - the answer is not at all clear.
However we definitely expect one Cheltenham winner to confirm the form, and that is Menorah (Philip Hobbs/ Richard Johnson) in the opening novice hurdle at 15.00 CET. He won the Supreme Novices Hurdle in good style, beating several of these opponents, and gave the Irish hotshot Dunguib a beating.Main pposition today should come from Escort´men (Üaul Nicholls/ Ruby Walsh), most impressive when winning at 16-1 (an unusual winning SP for this team) at Kempton in February, but Menorah´ s race was much stronger.
The best race today is the Grade One Melling Chase over 2 1/2 miles at 16.10. 10 of the 11 runners ran at the Festival, with Alberta´s Run (Jonjo O´Neill/ Tony McCoy) showing the best form when defeating Poquelin (Nicholls/ Walsh) in the Ryanair, while Forpadyteplasterer (Tom Cooper/ Davy Russell) and Kalahari King (Ferdy Murphy/ Graham Lee) finished 2nd and 3rd in the Champion Chase. Over this distance we expect Kalahari King to come out best, but our real fancy is the one horse that not run at Cheltenham - the 12yo Monet´s Garden (Nicky Richards/ Johnson); the grey is an exuberant jumper who loves this track, weere he has already won 4 times. He has not run since beating Alberta´s Run at Ascot in February and despite his advancing years looks the one to beat today.
The Grade Two novice chase over 3 miles 1 furlong at 15.35 also sees Cheltenham runners likely to be in the pole position. Burton Port (Nicky Henderson/ Barry Geraghty) and Knockara Beau (George Charlton/ Jan Faltejsek) fnished 2nd and 4th in the RSA chase and should be thereabouts again, while Ogee (Renee Robeson/ Jimmy McCarthy), a winner here over hurdles last year, also ran a great race at the Festival. Alan King has so far endured a dreadful season, but his horses have been running better recently and Chamirey (Robert Thornton) has a chance of landing a big race for the stable in the Grade One Sefton Novices Hurdle at 17.20 over 3 miles. However among the opposition is Western Leader ("Shark" Hanlon/ Conor O´Farrell), regarded by the Irish as their banker of the meeting after two easy wins. He is stepping up in distance, but this is not expected to be a major problem.
The handicaps look as difficult as always, in particular the Topham Chase over 2 miles 5 furlongs of the Grand National course at 16.45 with 28 runners. Pasco is likely to start favourite for the Nicholls/ Walsh team, but almost anything is possible here.

Betting forecast:
1. Race: Menorah - Escort`men - La Sarrazine
2. Race: Burton Port - Knockara Beau - Take The Breeze
3. Race: Forpadydeplasterer - Kalahari King - Poquelin
4. Race: Pasco - Offshore Account - Plaisir D`Estruval
5. Race: The Minack - Voramar Two - Western Leader
6. Race: Quinz - Buena Vista - Alderluck
7. Race: Araucaria - Dare To Doubt - Mizzurka