Inglis Drever can overcome Aintree jinx

Published on Wednesday 2 April 2008 23:09

FAIR play to anyone who has successfully split the atom but for their next trick, they might like to try something really difficult. Like picking a few winners at Aintree over the next three days.

Normally, big meetings such as we're about to enjoy at Liverpool are fairly straightforward. You study form, make your selections, and hopefully get more right than wrong. I said hopefully.

The action on Merseyside is, however, always a shade more convoluted as the Cheltenham factor has to be added to the equation. Which is where things can get messy as no-one is ever quite sure exactly what the Cheltenham factor is going to be. Until it's too late.

The record books are full of horses who have triumphed at Prestbury Park and been well fancied to do likewise at Aintree, only to disappoint, so there's the rub. Do punters slavishly follow Festival form, ignore it all together, or try to mix-and-match? The last option seems the most sensible path to follow so here goes.

As far as Inglis Drever is concerned, we'll only have to wait until the opening event to find out if his history making hat-trick in the World Hurdle has taken the edge of the Graham Wylie-owned gelding but having tipped him to triumph in the Cotswolds last month, the least he deserves is a little bit of loyalty.

On the debit side, his last three runs at Aintree have all ended in defeat, including 12 months ago when he arrived in Scouseland having established his credentials as the leading staying hurdler in the country only to be put firmly in his place by Mighty Man, a rival he'd beaten at Cheltenham just a few weeks before.

The jury's still out on whether or not Aintree is Inglis Drever's ideal stomping ground, especially as the going might be drying out a tad, but when you're king of the hill, it's up to the opposition to prove they're good enough to knock you off the summit, so bring it on.

Kauto Star is a different matter entirely but the former Gold Cup winner has no reason to bear a sheepish look as he parades before the totesport Bowl Chase.

Finishing second to Denman in the blue riband may, in time, prove to be quite a performance, particularly as jockey Ruby Walsh said afterwards he was beaten with a circuit to go.

That he could keep plugging away and still manage to get as close as he did to his stablemate says much for the ability and the tenacity of Kauto Star, and trainer Paul Nicholls is convinced his charge is primed to do himself justice.

"If I had one doubt during the last fortnight he wouldn't be there. Clifford (Baker, head lad) rides him every day and he's happy with him," explained Nicholls.

"Three-miles-one-furlong round this track will suit him very well and I suppose slightly better ground will suit him. If you'd taken Denman out of the Gold Cup, he would have won impressively so no-one would be doubting him. On reflection, I think Kauto ran better than he did when winning at Cheltenham last year.

"It was a much better race, the stats and the time show that, the ratings show that. He possibly didn't jump with as much fluency as normal but that happens from time to time. I think it was a much better race than when he won 12 months ago.

"He's in very good form and if he runs anywhere near that, he will be hard to beat," added the Somerset handler.

Hopes of a Northern success in the race may hinge on how much rain falls as the Nicky Richards-trained Monet's Garden won't appear if too much of it makes an appearance.

"It's probably going to be beautiful ground and he'll probably run, but just in case it did come up a little bit wetter than expected, he would go in the two-and-a-half-miler," said Richards, who as a safety net has also entered the grey in tomorrow's Melling Chase.

All of which is the least of his problems as Richards will saddle today's nap Palomar in the finale, and that's an anchor very few manage to wriggle free from.

&#149 Neptune Collonges is set to bid for back-to-back victories in the Punchestown Guinness Gold Cup on 23 April. The grey lifted the 275,000 euro Grade One contest over three miles and one furlong last spring, and he showed he was in good form when finishing a staying-on third behind his stablemates Denman and Kauto Star in the Cheltenham Gold Cup last month.

"It's all systems go. I entered him this morning, the race closed at lunchtime today. He's in there and that is where he is going to run next," trainer Paul Nicholls said.