Grand National Festival tips: Dan Overall's bets for day one

This may not be the strongest Grade One contest, but it is certainly competitive.

I have been a fan of War Lord all season and while he’s been performing admirably well over two miles, he’s always looked like he would appreciate a step up in trip, which isn’t surprising given that the bulk of his form over hurdles came over intermediate distances.

He was understandably outpaced in the Arkle on quick ground last time out, but I was impressed by the way he rallied to finish fourth. Being beaten in the Arkle has not been prohibitive to success here, either, with five of the past 12 winners of the Manifesto tasting defeat in the two-mile contest at the Cheltenham Festival before scoring at Aintree.

Colin Tizzard has also performed exceptionally well at this meeting in recent years. From 2016 to 2019, he had an impressive 30 per cent strike-rate, which improved to 37.5 per cent when looking solely at the Graded races (I have excluded 2021 as his horses were completely out of form).

Some may be concerned that Protektorat had a hard race at the Cheltenham Festival, but it was just his third run of the season, and it wasn’t as gruelling an affair as the Cheltenham Gold Cup can be.

Furthermore, six of the past seven winners of this race had contested the Gold Cup on their previous start, and if any horse can score at Aintree after running there, it should be a lightly campaigned seven-year-old.

He perhaps could have finished second at Cheltenham, but a mistake at the last ended any chance of that, although he did well to rally for third given the significance of the mistake.

Given I have my doubts over the others at the head of the market, namely Clan Des Obeaux who didn’t travel with any zest in the Denman Chase when last seen, I am happy to side with the progressive, younger horse who is two from two at Aintree and I hope that he confirms himself as the top staying chaser in Britain.

I suspect this has been the long-term plan for King D’argent who has been dropped 7lb since the start of this season, despite some very creditable efforts.

Following an encouraging seasonal reappearance at Kelso, he was struck into in the Haldon Gold Cup, so I am happy to put a line through that effort. Since then, he has been ridden with restraint on all three subsequent starts, which is strange when you consider that his best performances came as a result of positive tactics.

Despite the tactical switch, his last two runs at Doncaster were that of a horse coming into form. He was only four lengths behind subsequent Champion Chase second, Funambule Sivola, while he may have beaten Bun Doran last time out had he not made a couple of small errors late on.

I hope connections will revert to riding him from the front here, which is a running style that suits this track. If they do, he should go close.