Regulars will know how much I admire Ahoy Senor. He has come of age in his last couple of runs and, ironically, appeared to have put his regular jumping errors behind him, still going strongly in front 6 out in the Gold Cup, when he found himself unable to find the space he sometimes needs to put himself right for takeoff, and came down.
In a way, that fall could prove a blessing for today’s race, as each of his opponents ran at Cheltenham, all bar A Plus Tard finishing their races, therefore having to give of their best all the way. Because Ahoy Senor came down before the pressure was turned up, it’s fair to say that he will not have had a hard race. Oddly, having failed to complete at Cheltenham is a strong positive stat for this race; three of the last 4 winners of this – Cue Card, Tea For Two, and Kemboy fell or unseated at the Cheltenham festival.
Ahoy Senor is going for an Aintree festival hat trick today, and my only concern is that he might have been mentally affected by that fall. There is no way of telling, so I am napping the big horse to win this.
Good luck all
Joe
My usual warning. Anything I put up as a tip here is for ‘fun money’ – stakes you can afford to lose almost without even thinking about it. There’s just as much fun to be had with small stakes.
Steeplechasing 