Aintree 2026 Preview: Day 1 Tips, Selections and Best Bets
“The most intense conflicts, if overcome, leave behind a sense of security and calm that is not easily disturbed. It is just these intense conflicts and their conflagration which are needed to produce valuable and lasting results.”
Carl Jung
Welcome to Aintree.
Very much the calm after the storm that is Cheltenham, Merseyside will provide a sense of serenity as it plays host to three days of top-class jumps action – culminating in the nation’s most famous race, the Grand National on Saturday.
It’s good-to-soft all over and conditions should be perfect. Thursday’s card is well up to scratch – here’s the preview.
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1:45 Juvenile Hurdle
Focus on the top of the market.
There’s really not much between the horses that battled out the finish of the Triumph, and perhaps it will be MAESTRO CONTI who is best suited to Liverpool and, importantly, these ground conditions.
Minella Study and Selma De Vary (in that order) are respected; Mange Tout was tempting at the likely odds.
2:20 Manifesto Novices’ Chase
LULAMABA’s only two career defeats have come at Cheltenham, and it may be that he’s one of those horses who’ll never peak at the championship meeting of the season.
He’s fully 12lbs clear of this field and promises to stay this trip well.
He bounced back from defeat at Cheltenham last year with a convincing victory at Punchestown, and he’s fancied to do the same here.
Extremely hard to beat.
2:55 Bowl
There’s no getting away from Gold Cup runner-up JANGO BAIE, who won’t have Gaelic Warrior to contend with today.
It didn’t look an overly punishing run in the big one (something to be wary of in this race), and he arrives here relatively fresh having been kept to just three runs this season.
Protektorat is afforded maximum respect, and the other jockeys will need to ensure he isn’t given too much rope from the front. But there’s been no 11 year-old winner since 2005 and the ground might just be quick enough for him at this stage of his career.
3:30 Foxhunters’
A first taste of the National fences this week.
BARTON SNOW (NAP) might not have won by far at Cheltenham, but he was the best horse in the race by a considerable distance and the winning margin does little to showcase his superiority in this sphere.
The drop in trip today is a major positive and will likely see the selection in an even better light.
These fences aren’t what they used to be, and he’s fancied to cruise around this course before being delivered late.
He’s better than anything in this field and is fancied to complete a famous double.
4:05 Aintree Hurdle
This is quite the puzzle with just 6lbs separating the top five horses in the market.
Alexei catches the eye; he may well have been runner-up in the Champion Hurdle but for a bad mistake at the last. But the feeling is that he was ridden to pick up the pieces that day, and he won’t get the same set up here. He’s also never won at this level.
BRIGHTERDAYSAHEAD has always been the apple of Gordon Elliott’s eye and she can confirm Champion Hurdle superiority over The New Lion here.
A previous course-and-distance winner, Elliott has got her back to her best and her proven ability around Aintree is the narrow deciding factor.
4:40 Red Rum
Typically competitive.
The obvious one is Sans Bruit who goes for a hat-trick in this race. Connections will be pleased to have lowered his handicap mark to 133 (won here twice off 130) and he must surely go close. But everything has a price, and in this likely helter-skelter environment, he’s passed over at the likely cramped odds.
JAVERT ALLEN is a clean jumper who will race prominently and looks capable of better. The first-time cheekpieces are an interesting addition and this drop in trip to the minimum distance looks the right call. He should give a bold sight.
5:15 Mares’ Bumper
Darts are thrown at SEVEN STARS and FAIRY PARK in what looks an impossibly tricky finale.
Good luck for day one.
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