Grand National Trial at Down Royal

The most interesting race today, St. Patrick´s Day, is of course run in Ireland and that is the 3 1/4 mile chase at 16.15 CET at Down Royal, and it has attracted a strong if select field for relatively small prize-money. The 6 runners include one of our main Grand National hopes Seebass, trained by Ted Walsh and ridden by daughter Katie, who has already been twice strongly fancied for the Aintree race, finishing third in 2012 and 13th last year.The 3 runners owned by Gigginstown Stud, who had such a wonderful day last week at Cheltenham, look the most dangerous opponents, especially Bog Warrior (Tony Martin/ Paul Carberry), also an Aintree entry. From the German point of view, the opening maiden hurdle at 14.45 could also be interesting, as there are 2 ex-German riunners here, both previously with Christian von der Recke and now with Mervyn Torrens: Odit and Apisata. The former won 5 races on the flat and while they were mainly at a low level, he is clearly preferred of this pair and could well run a big race at a long price.

There is another German-bred in the maiden hurdle at 16.05 at the other irish Meeting, Willie Burke´s Mexican Border and while he has shown no form so far, he is very well bred, being from the same family as Monsun. Best race here is the veterans handicap chase at 17.35, which looks wide open; although he has failed to complete so far this season, we shall give another chance to top-weight Popcorn (Willie Mullins/ Mikey Fogarty), who was in younger days running in miuch better company.

There are also a couple of German-breds engaged in the U.K. today, indeed A Keen Sense (David Dennis/ Wayne Hutchinson) in the maiden hurdle at 16.10 at Southwell and All The Winds (Sam Lycett/ Willie Twiston-Davies) are half-brothers. The latter is very inconsistent, but won the same race off a higher mark last year, while the former should certainly be capable of winning a maiden hurdle before long. Wonder Weapen (Andrew Balding/ David Probert), making his debut in the maiden at Kempton at 15.50, is another German-bred and is from the Ravensberg "W" family; he could well win at the first time of asking.