Our Ben Linfoot was trackside at Aintree on Thursday as the big names by and large avoided banana skins in the Grade Ones.
Aintree can often feel different to the rest of the National Hunt season. End of term, spring sunshine, the formbook can be turned on its head.
Not today.
Cold and grey and drizzly in L9, the results on the track could’ve been found in the deep midwinter formbook.
There was Mange Tout for Gordon Elliott landing the Boodles Anniversary 4-Y-O Juvenile Hurdle. She was last seen finishing third behind absent juvenile Narciso Has at the Dublin Racing Festival on February 2.
There was Koktail Divin for Henry de Bromhead, appreciating every inch of the drop in trip to 2m4f in the William Hill Manifesto Novices’ Chase. He came to prominence at Leopardstown’s Christmas meeting and did his reputation no harm with a non-staying sixth in the Brown Advisory at Cheltenham.
There was Jango Baie for Nicky Henderson, putting his King George fourth and Cheltenham Gold Cup second to good use in the Racing Welfare Bowl Chase. It isn’t a given he would’ve beaten Impaire Et Passe here, but once that horse departed two out the result was not in doubt.
There was Brighterdaysahead for Elliott again in the William Hill Aintree Hurdle. She can do it in the mud at the DRF and in the spring on better ground in Liverpool.
It all suggests that the form might well be more trustworthy than Aintree form sometimes is.
Koktail Divin certainly looks a novice to be reckoned with.
He looked a potential monster at Christmas when winning a Leopardstown beginners’ chase by 21 lengths, a race the likes of Galopin Des Champs and Fact To File have graduated from in recent years.
There was a bit of hokey cokey with his Cheltenham Festival target, as he seemingly looked booked for the Jack Richards Novices’ Handicap Chase at one point, a race that might well have been a better option than the Brown Advisory in hindsight.
That’s because he came there cruising over three miles only to weaken up the hill, but the drop in trip did the trick in the Manifesto where his excellent jumping combined with a strong gallop really brought the best out in him.
He was helped here by Lulamba’s unseat at the 10th fence – too early to say how much of a say he would’ve had at the business end – but he’s got all the tools to thrive in open company next year.
Indeed, the Ryanair Chase looks the perfect race for him and revised quotes of 16/1 about him remain perfectly fair – if you’re the kind of punter that doesn’t mind an 11-month wait for your bets.
As for Henderson, he had a mixed day.
On the one hand he’ll be hoping Jango Baie can do a Gaelic Warrior and use the Aintree Bowl as a launchpad to Cheltenham Gold Cup glory, on the other he’ll be hoping Lulamba’s unseat in the Manifesto is nothing more than a bump in the road.
Jango Baie might’ve had a fight on his hands had Impaire Et Passe stood up at the second last. But he didn’t and from there on it was a Jango Baie procession, a deserved Grade 1 following a season of near misses in the biggest of races.
The next step for him is to win one of those biggest of races in the next campaign and with this season under his belt he’ll go into next year even better prepared for a King George and Gold Cup assault.
He only needs to improve a little.
Lulamba, a horse with bags of talent, has more to find, especially in the jumping department, although to be fair to him he jumped the 10th fence absolutely fine in the Manifesto, only for a stumble on landing sending Nico de Boinville out of the side door.
In isolation it can be filed in the ‘these things happen’ drawer, on the back of a bad error that cost him in the Arkle it might be more than that. He needs to sharpen up out of novice company next year and a step up to three miles might help him, as well.
For Gordon Elliott, he bagged two Grade 1s with mares thanks to Mange Tout and Brighterdaysahead. Ironically his battle with Willie Mullins in the Irish trainer’s championship probably helped him at Aintree, the Closutton big guns in those races staying at home for the domestic battle.
Britain’s champion trainer-elect Dan Skelton drew a blank in the Grade 1 races before landing the closing Mares' Bumper, but he was second with Protektorat in the Bowl and with The New Lion in the Aintree Hurdle. Both were simply beaten by better horses on the day.
Later on the sun finally came out. After the previous biggest winning SP of the day was 5/1, Fergal O’Brien’s Ryan’s Rocket won the Red Rum at 14/1.
Much harder to find after an unseat and a 28-length sixth on his last two starts, Aintree’s unpredictability was finally restored on a day when the formbook held up surprisingly well.
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