Does the Spring Double mean anything to you?
If so, then you may be 'of a certain age'.
A once popular marketing device, the Spring Double was an annual tradition that commanded plenty of headlines and involved an ante-post wager on both the Lincoln and Grand National and heralded, well, the start of spring of course.
It was a bet beloved by my father - although not one that he ever drew from I don't believe - that marked the release of winter's icy grip and the changing of the seasons both meteorological and racing.
The meteorological seasons have now, largely, blurred into an indistinct mess of wet and warmth and the racing seasons have an arbitrary line drawn between one and the other and perhaps that has played its part in the demise of this once popular harbinger. It's hard to get excited about the return of something that never really left.
Life is slowly returning to the landscape though. The days are drawing out following the spring equinox, green leaves are emerging, the first bluebell petals are unfurling and the fields are filling with newborn lambs who plaintively bleat for their mothers. Perhaps it is time, too, for the Spring Double to make its own return to consciousness.
That said, I normally greet news of the Lincoln with a dismissive grunt while still shaking off the dust of hibernation amidst a post-Cheltenham funk that endures until the last vestiges of a blackthorn winter have disappeared and is rarely lifted by the Grand National, a race I haven't identified the winner of this century.
Hope springs eternal in the human breast - apparently - and now is the time to breathe new life into both this tired tradition and tired scribe.
First to Doncaster and the William Hill Lincoln.
The last 25 renewals have seen 11 four-year-olds successful, 13 aged five or six and one seven-year-old. It is the older horses who have held sway in the last few years and it's no surprise that they have been slightly harder to find with 2025 winner Godwinson - trained then by the race's leading trainer, William Haggas - returned at 15/2 and the three prior at 33/1, 18/1 and 28/1.
Haggas could run progressive four-year-old Eternal Force and it's no surprise that he's vying for favouritism with peer La Botte who has been, like a few, the subject of positive vibes.
It's hard to knock either runner as you might hope but La Botte could have his work cut out from a mark of 104 while Eternal Force is swimming in deeper waters from an 8 lb higher mark than for his last win and, in any respect, I prefer to look a little further down the betting.
Mick Channon won the 2022 renewal with Johan and son Jack has entered another likely looking five-year-old in Urban Lion, widely available at 25/1.
His conversion rate on turf is poor with only one win from 10 but that doesn't paint the full picture as he is two from two on the all-weather and has run consistently well in some decent handicaps. Urban Lion enjoyed a really consistent 2025 after winning at Chelmsford, finishing a neck second in the Spring Cup at Newbury, winning at Sandown and filling fifth in the Royal Hunt Cup before a well-earned break. He returned with another near miss in the Shergar Cup, flopped at York (easy to forgive) and ended with a ninth-placed finish (fourth in his group) in the Cambridgeshire.
That's a book of very solid form in top handicaps and, for all that he will need to improve to win, he has a good record first time up after a break and looks more than capable of putting himself in the mix for a stable that's started the season on the front foot.
For all that the Irish trainers seemingly can't buy a handicap chase winner at the Cheltenham Festival, they've got a fair grip on the Randox Health Grand National, winning seven of the last nine with the other two heading over the border to Scotland.
That seems a reasonable place to start for all that JP McManus has lined up some English-based troops for the challenge in Iroko, Jagwar and Johnnywho.
The market is less enthusiastic about the claims of the fittingly named Better Days Ahead which may go some way to explaining my abysmal punting record in the National but this 50/1 chance has been campaigned with the big spring races in mind by Gordon Elliott.
The winner of the 2024 renewal of the Martin Pipe - Iroko won it in 2023 don't forget - returned to Cheltenham the following spring for his third Festival and took third in the Brown Advisory behind Lecky Watson. He then contested the Irish Grand National won by Haiti Couleurs and was beaten over 27 lengths into sixth, one spot behind Johnnywho who he meets on similar terms but is significantly better off with the year older winner.
Better Days Ahead didn't reappear until running (well) over hurdles in February before qualifying for the Grand National in the Webster Cup at Navan, a race that was used by Any Second Now as an Aintree warm-up, where he ran a decent race over a trip clearly short of his optimum.
A few firms have priced up the Irish Grand National and Better Days Ahead is towards the top of a market led by Oscars Brother but given the speculative nature of the Spring Double, I'm happy to take the chance that connections chance their arm in Liverpool with the experience gleaned from Fairyhouse last year expected to stand him in good stead.
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