David Ord managed to conjure four selections out of our podcast panel for the Coral Scottish Grand National at Ayr on Saturday.
Graham Cunningham – THE FERRY MASTER
“He ran a great race for fourth in this race in 2021, he and his stablemate Dingo Dollar set things up for the winner Mighty Thunder as they rolled for home off the turn and went clear.
“The Ferry Master, in particular, paid the penalty for that. Last time he got beaten in a small field at Newcastle trading 1.02, but the ability is definitely there for him to run well again.
“Because the British handicappers are being a bit more quick to drop horses now he’s 5lb lower than when he ran a good fourth last year and I don’t think he’s regressed in any way.
“If he’s ridden with a bit more patience, The Ferry Master could be one to go well for Scotland.”
David Johnson – KITTY’S LIGHT
“He must be the oldest six-year-old going, I can’t believe he’s been around as long as what he has but he’s a deserved favourite.
“He’s come down the weights a little bit and there was lots of encouragement in that run behind stablemate Cap Du Nord at Kempton last time and we know Christian Williams is a dab hand with these staying chases.
“Kitty’s Light is an obvious favourite and while his price doesn’t excite me at the minute, hopefully when the final decs are in the bookies get a little bit less defensive and we might get a bit better than his current odds.”
Ben Linfoot – MAJOR DUNDEE
“I’ve backed Major Dundee for Alan King. I’ve got a bit of a theory that this is probably the least gruelling of all the Nationals and with only 31 in at the five-day stage we’re probably going to be looking at 22 or 23 runners again.
“I’m just not sure that an absolute gruelling stamina test is what we’re going to get and we can look at those horses who haven’t run over four miles, who are improving going up in trip, and we’ve seen in this race plenty of times that unexposed novices do well here.
“Major Dundee is a really likeable, unexposed stayer, he’s had three runs over fences, he’s a good solid jumper, he shapes like he stays and we got a hint from his Newbury run that he might be well treated off a mark of 132, beating Soldier Of Destiny by eight lengths who has gone in since.
“Anything 16/1 or above he’s worth an each-way bet.”
Billy Nash – STORMY JUDGE
“We’ve (Ireland) got a few decent chances this year. Pat Fahy in particular has a few interesting runners in History Of Fashion and Stormy Judge.
“Stormy Judge in particular is a horse who I think has a perfect profile for this race. He won two chases last year, he won a very competitive novice handicap chase at Navan last year, where he beat Enjoy D’allen who is high in the betting for the English National and School Boy Hours who won the Paddy Power Chase at Christmas.
“He was getting weight from both of those horses but the form has worked out particularly well.
“I think there’s more to come and he shapes as though he stays this trip.”