Ben Linfoot looks at Aintree winners that bounced back from defeat at Cheltenham over the last five years and picks out four horses to follow with Liverpool in mind.
With the Cheltenham Festival done and dusted for another year the next big show in the world of jumps racing is the Grand National meeting at Aintree and the former is often a good source of winners for the latter, as you would expect.
There is usually a gap of either 20 or 27 days between the last race at Cheltenham and the first race at Aintree, plenty of time for proximity not to be too much of an issue for most horses, and this year it’s the shorter of the two breaks with the meeting in Liverpool beginning April 8.
At the last five Grand National meetings (obviously one didn’t take place in 2020 – how could we forget?) a total of 67 horses won at Aintree having had their last start at the Cheltenham Festival, with 12 of those winning at both events.
That leaves 55 horses that were beaten at Cheltenham going on to be successful at Aintree, an average of 11 for the last five years when both meetings took place, so it’s well worth forgiving plenty of Festival defeats when studying the form for the three days in Liverpool.
Here’s a look at where those 55 winners came from:
2015 (12): Clarcam (8th Arkle), All Yours (5th Fred Winter), Silviniaco Conti (7th Gold Cup), Don Cossack (3rd Ryanair), Duke of Lucca (8th Cross Country), Jezki (4th Champion Hurdle), Many Clouds (6th Gold Cup), Nichols Canyon (3rd Ballymore), Rajdhani Express (8th Plate), Saphir Du Rheu (2nd Stayers’ Hurdle), Taglietelle (4th Coral Cup), Whisper (5th Stayers’ Hurdle).
2016 (9): Apple’s Jade (2nd Triumph), Bacardys (3rd Bumper), Buveur D’Air (3rd Supreme), Cue Card (Fell Gold Cup), Eastlake (9th Grand Annual), God’s Own (4th Champion Chase), Ivan Grozny (8th County), Native River (2nd National Hunt Chase), Ubak (3rd Coral Cup).
2017 (10): Double W’s (9th Novice Handicap), Flying Angel (6th Marsh), Fox Norton (2nd Champion Chase), Pingshou (10th Supreme), Rather Be (UR Martin Pipe), Sizing Codelco (15th Plate), Tea For Two (UR Gold Cup), The Worlds End (Fell Albert Bartlett), Ultragold (9th Grand Annual), Yanworth (7th Champion Hurdle).
2018 (11): Balnaslow (7th Foxhunters, Aintree win later disqualified), Black Op (2nd Ballymore), Finian’s Oscar (5th Marsh), Identity Thief (4th Champion Hurdle), L’Ami Serge (8th Stayers’ Hurdle), Might Bite (2nd Gold Cup), Mr Big Shot (10th Martin Pipe), Politologue (4th Champion Chase), Santini (3rd Albert Bartlett), Terrefort (2nd Marsh), Ultragold (13th Plate).
2019 (13): Champ (2nd Ballymore), Chief Justice (12th Fred Winter), Felix Desjy (5th Supreme), Kalashnkov (UR Arkle), Kemboy (UR Gold Cup), Kildisart (4th Marsh), Lostintranslation (2nd Marsh), Min (5th Champion Chase), Ornua (Fell Arkle), Supasundae (7th Stayers’), The Glancing Queen (5th Champion Bumper), Top Wood (3rd Foxhunters).
Just over half of the 55 had finished in the top five at the Festival, going into Aintree in good form, but there were a good portion of Cheltenham blowouts bouncing back in style at Liverpool, as well.
With Aintree in mind I’ve picked out a mixture of horses to follow from Cheltenham, leaning heavily on those that ran well in defeat last week, with one off the canvas suggestion highlighted given that history shows it can and does happen.
GREANETEEN – Melling Chase
With Willie Mullins weighing up options for Allaho, including whether to drop him in trip for the Punchestown Champion Chase, there’s a chance the Ryanair monster won’t turn up for the JLT Melling Chase at Aintree and if that’s the case plenty will likely line up in his absence.
The Queen Mother Champion Chase has been a good guide to the Melling over the years, despite the Aintree race being over a half a mile further, with 17 winners coming from the Festival contest since 1997, from Martha’s Son to Min.
As you might decipher from the above lists, the last four Melling Chase winners were beaten in the Champion Chase, with God’s Own and Politologue finishing fourth prior to their Aintree successes, and it’s last week’s Cheltenham fourth that looks interesting again this year.
GREANETEEN ran a cracker in the Champion Chase, belying odds of 50/1, and he was gaining on the leaders again at the line suggesting he’d be no forlorn hope if Paul Nicholls decided to step him up in trip to 2m4f next month.
Nicholls hinted after this horse’s Haldon Gold Cup win at Exeter in November that 2m4f would be a likely port of call for him sometime soon, so it would be no surprise if he conducts the experiment at Aintree at the end of his second season over fences while he’s in such good form.
FARCLAS – Topham Chase
Both the Paddy Power Plate Handicap Chase and Johnny Henderson Grand Annual have been good pointers to the Topham in recent years with Rajdhani Express (Plate), Eastlake (Grand Annual) and Ultragold (both races) winning over 2m5f on the National course on the back of being beaten at Cheltenham.
There could be several beaten horses from those two handicaps with chances in the Topham this year, including Ibleo and Us And Them from the Grand Annual and Caribean Boy from the Plate – a horse who stayed on well in the closing stages after being outpaced.
It’s the seven-year-old FARCLAS, though, that looks to have plenty more to give over the intermediate trip after emerging as by far the best of the rest behind handicap blot The Shunter in the Plate.
He clipped heels and stumbled rounding the turn for home – where he was shuffled from sixth to eighth in the incident – but Jack Kennedy regathered him and negotiated his passage through horses up the hill for a convincing second.
It was a performance that suggested he’s got a big handicap in him off a mark in the mid to high 140s and he jumps well and enjoys spring ground, so it might be a good option for him at this stage of his career - rather than taking up one of his Grand National entries at Aintree or in Ireland.
OSCAR ELITE – Sefton Novices’ Hurdle
All of Colin Tizzard’s novices ran well in defeat at Cheltenham with Eldorado Allen second in the Sporting Life Arkle, Fiddlerontheroof and The Big Breakaway second and third in the Brown Advisory and OSCAR ELITE second in the Albert Bartlett.
He was no match for Gavin Cromwell’s Vanillier, but it was taking how he emerged from the pack to chase him home and he pinged the last before putting daylight between himself and the rest of the field.
The combination of good ground, a first-time tongue-tie and stepping back up in trip to three miles looked to bring out the very best in him, so he looks an obvious one for the Sefton Novices’ Hurdle – a race Tizzard won with Thistlecrack back in 2015.
Plenty of Sefton winners have won at Aintree on the back of being beaten at Cheltenham including the last three; The Worlds End, Santini and Champ, with the first two mentioned both beaten in the Albert Bartlett.
GABYNAKO – Alder Hey Children’s Charity Handicap Hurdle
Seven horses have won at Aintree having unseated their rider or fallen at Cheltenham in the last four years and one of them, Rather Be, unshipped his rider at the second hurdle in the Martin Pipe before landing the Alder Hey Children’s Charity Handicap Hurdle three weeks later.
GABYNAKO went one better and unseated Conor McNamara at the very first hurdle in the same Cheltenham race, through no fault of his own as he had nowhere to go when Folcano fell in front of him.
Sent off the 9/2 second favourite for the Martin Pipe, on account of his form behind runaway Ballymore winner Bob Olinger at Naas and his trainer’s fine Festival that included two Grade One winners, plenty was expected of the son of Tirwanako in his first handicap over 2m4f.
The good news is his mark will remain unchanged and there are plenty of options for him this spring, including at Aintree if connections fancy it.
Cromwell is two from eight at Aintree, with both of his wins coming in the fillies’ juvenile at the December meeting, but he ran Highland Fling in the conditional jockeys’ handicap hurdle at the National meeting back in 2017 and I wonder if Liverpool might be on the agenda for this fellow.