Grand National meeting: an ante-post bet for the Topham at 25-1

You wait four months for a race over the fences and then three come along all at once.

The National takes place on Saturday week but we get two more contests over a lap of the course in the 48 hours beforehand. The Randox Foxhunters’ Open Hunters' Chase takes place a week today with the Randox Supporting Prostate Cancer UK Topham Handicap Chase being run 24 hours later.

Bookmakers are going 10-1 the field for the latter race and at this stage it’s anybody’s guess as to the final field with 61 in the mix and a maximum field of 24 permitted to run.

Plenty of those engaged disappointed at the Cheltenham Festival but entries for the Topham closed three days after events in the Cotswolds, so it would be dangerous to assume they will not be on a retrieval mission. 

Willie Mullins has a team of ten to shuffle (including five of the top six in the weights) and it will be a surprise if his representatives do not include James Du Berlais, who glided around in the Topham 12 months and looked sure to win halfway up the run-in only to be collared in the final strides. 

He's only 1lb higher in the ratings and shaped well at Leopardstown last time, so it’s perhaps predictable the layers are unanimous in making him their ante-post market leader.

However, he’s a hard horse to win with (his only success since November 2020 came on New Year’s Day in 2023) and all his best form has been in the mud. That latter remark is also applicable to last year’s winner, Arizona Cardinal, who has yet to spark this campaign. 

If the weather forecasts are correct - and the officials do not leave the taps on - then goodish ground will be on the cards and one horse well suited by such conditions is

Pinkerton

, who rates an each-way play at the 25-1 offered by William Hill. 

The Noel Meade-trained nine-year-old was a tenacious winner of the Galway Plate in July and then chased home Found A Fifty in Grade Two company at Down Royal before finishing a solid third to Perceval Legallois in the Paddy Power Chase at Leopardstown over Christmas. The form of all those races reads well. 

was well-fancied for another hot handicap at the Dublin Racing Festival after that sequence of solid spins but an uncharacteristic blunder at the ninth fence halted him in his tracks. 

A two-month break should have helped recharge his batteries and he’s well worth another chance to get back on the up. A good test over 2m 5f should suit him perfectly and he seems to enjoy a bit of hurly-burly with his form in fields of 13 runners or more reading 112011130. 

The other one I was half-interested in was The Goffer, who was an eye-catching fourth in the Cross Country Chase at Cheltenham last time after being given a lot to do. This test will be a bare minimum but I can the general 16-1 chance keeping on when others are beginning to wilt. 

The early play in the Foxhunters’ Chase looks Lifetime Ambition, who is available at 6-1. 

It was only two years ago that he was running off a mark of 158 in the Grand National – jumping well at the head of affairs before being wiped out by another runner at the ninth (Valentine’s). The RaceiQ data reveals he had gained 11 lengths with his jumping up until at that stage, having finished a good fourth in the Grand Sefton earlier in the season. 

Liftetime Ambition has spent most of the intervening period contesting point-to-points, chalking up six wins along the way, including on his past two starts. However, he did resurface under Rules at the Punchestown Festival in May when making one of the best hunters in training, Its On The Line, pull out all the stops. 

If he can reproduce anything like that form, on a track he clearly enjoys, then he must go close. 

Willitgoahead has been a revelation this term, with his point-to-point efforts including an emphatic defeat of Lifetime Ambition in November, albeit he was probably at a fitness advantage that day. He heads the market after his close third in the hunters’ chase at Cheltenham, but he had a tough race and there must be a chance this will come a bit quick for him. 

A bigger threat may be Famous Clermont, easy winner of this race two years ago. He’s been teed up for this via the point circuit and should get the decent ground that brings out the best in him. Like Lifetime Ambition, he’s available at 6-1. 

Randox Supporting Prostate Cancer UK Topham Handicap Chase: Pinkerton each-way at 25-1.