The Gallops Report for April 1 has news from Lambourn and ncludes Top notch, Cocktails At Dawn, Whisper and others.
TOP NOTCH looks every inch a first-day banker for the Randox Health Grand National meeting and the Nicky Henderson-trained gelding has been in excellent form between Cheltenham and his Aintree objective.
He contests Thursday's Manifesto Novices' Chase for which he blew out in pleasing fashion at Seven Barrows.
For a relatively small horse, Top Notch has developed into an assured jumper, but a rare hiccup two fences out possibly cost him victory in the JLT Novices' Chase at the Festival.
COCKTAILS AT DAWN has the option of contesting Saturday's National and he could surprise a few people if doing so as this is his time of year.
He has schooled proficiently over a Grand National style fence in Lambourn.
WHISPER and MIGHT BITE fought out one of the best finishes seen at the 2017 Festival when separated by just a nose in the RSA Chase.
Might Bite held on by the skin of his teeth, but would have scored more authoritatively without his dramatic dive towards the stands rail on the run in.
Both horses took the eye in their winding up work for this week and have taken what looked a hard race in their stride.
BUVEUR D'AIR steps up to two and a half miles for the Aintree Hurdle and is rightly an odds-on shot for that race.
He has been skipping along merrily in light work as his trainer keeps his eye in for what is likely to be his final run of the season.
