Aintree Grand National meeting: second day

The Grand National meeting continues today with some very competitive racing and mainly large fields. The rain which was forecast has still not arrived, and it is expected that they will water. Fast ground will certainly suit Albertas Run (Jonjo O´Neill/ Tony McCoy) in the Grade One Melling Chase at 16.05. He had a hard race at Cheltenham when a close second in the Ryanair but he is very tough and consistent and racing over his best distance here; he won the race in 2010 and was runner-up last year, in the process finishing well in front of several of these opponents. The one he has to beat is clearly Finians Rainbow (Nicky Henderson/ Barry Geraghty), who also had a hard race at the Festival when running out a narrow and rather lucky winner of the Champion Chase. That was over 2 miles, and the extra half-mile here could be a problem. Irish hope Forpadytheplasterer (Tom Cooper/ Bryan Cooper) has not won for 3 years but has repeatedly been placed - including when runner-up here in 2010, and could well run into a place again, and so could Wishfull Thinking (Philip Hobbs/ Richard Johnson), who fell in the Champion but whose connections had a good winner here yesterday. However Albertas Run is for us the logical winner.

McCoy also has a good chance of landing the opening novice hurdle at 15.00 on Nicky Henderson´s Darlan, who should hold his stable companions Captain Conan (Geraghty) and Oscara Dara (David Bass), but will probably find Prospect Wells (Paul Nicholls/ Ruby Walsh), who did not finish far behind him at Cheltenham, a tougher nut to crack. Two horses with very interesting German pedigrees also run in this event, Seventh Sky (Charlie Mann/Noel Fehily) - a half-brother to Samum- and Toughness Danon (Brendan Powell/ Sam Twiston-Davies). Both should be capable of winning decent races over hurdles, but possibly not this one.

There are quite a few German-breds running today and we hope to see Moon over Miami (Charlie Mann/ Will Kennedy) run well at big price in the Topham Chase, a 2 mile 5 furlongs handicap chase at 16.40 which is the big betting race on the card. Experience of the track is always a big advantage here, so Always Waining (Peter Bowen/ Tom O´Brien) - who has won this race twice - and Frankie Figg (Nicholls/ Walsh) are also on the short list. The closely related Lava Lamp (Evan Williams/ Paul Moloney) and Los Nadis (Jim Goldie/ Ryan Mania), in the handicap hurdle at 17.50, and Lovcen (Alan King/ Robert Thornton) in the Grade One novice hurdle at 17.15 are other German-breds to keep an eye on.