NEWS | PREMIUM TIPS | STAKING | RESULTS | PLAY
NEWS | PREMIUM TIPS | STAKING | RESULTS | PLAY
Before you dive into today’s selections, Star Sports are offering all customers each way insurance on the Grand National at 4.00pm. Place an each way bet and if your horse finishes out of the places but completes the course, your place stake comes back as a free bet up to £25. Get set up with Star Sports here.
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Willie Mullins does not travel to Aintree with horses that cannot win. He travels with horses he expects to win, and Salvator Mundi arrives on Merseyside having already conquered this track twelve months ago when landing the Top Novices’ Hurdle by seven lengths. That course form matters in a race where the history consistently rewards horses who know and like the flat galloping nature of this venue. His most recent run at Thurles in February told you everything you need to know about the ceiling of this horse. He won by 28 lengths at 1/7, making all in a beginners chase in a performance Paul Townend described as pleasing after two earlier runs over fences where the horse was still finding his feet. Townend said afterwards that there is significant improvement to come on a faster track where he can be allowed to use his jumping properly. That faster track is here, today, and the ground is good to soft rather than the heavy he was fighting against at Thurles.
At 4/5 this is not a bet for the faint hearted but the trend data for this race is as unambiguous as it gets in jump racing. Every single winner in the last 22 renewals was priced at 5/1 or shorter. Every single winner in the last 21 renewals came from the top three in the market. The last nine winners were all returned at 5/1 or shorter without exception. Salvator Mundi is a six year old French bred trained by the most powerful operation in jump racing, ridden by the best jockey in the sport, at a track he has already won at, with his trainer telling anyone who will listen that his best is still ahead of him. The trends do not just point at this horse. They point exclusively at this horse.
Salvator Mundi is our selection for the Maghull Novices’ Chase. A course winner, a Mullins and Townend combination at their peak and a horse his trainer believes has more to give on faster ground. At 4/5 the price demands respect but the profile demands inclusion.
This Premier Handicap over three miles has a long history of rewarding the progressive and the lightly weighted and both of our selections arrive with exactly that profile. Hold The Serve has won his last three starts for Olly Murphy who is operating at a twenty percent strike rate this season and arrives at this meeting with serious ammunition across the card. The six year old carries just 10st 11lbs, one of the lighter weights in the field, and Sean Bowen takes the ride on a horse whose form figures tell you everything you need to know about where he is right now. Three wins on the bounce, each one building on the last, with a trainer in the form of his life and a horse whose ceiling at this level remains completely unknown. That unknown is not a negative here. It is the point. Progressive horses carrying light weights in big staying handicaps at Aintree are precisely what this race has rewarded time and again and Hold The Serve fits that mould as cleanly as anything in the field.
Ace Of Spades represents the each way value at the bigger price and Dan Skelton’s words before Cheltenham carry real weight. He said the horse had learned to race over three miles really well, that his jumping had improved dramatically, and that the better the ground the better his chance. He also said the horse was being overlooked. The CD flag tells you this horse has already won at this course and distance and Sam Twiston-Davies takes the ride for a trainer who has won this race three times in six years. The most recent zero needs excusing but Skelton clearly believes this horse is well suited to today’s conditions and today’s track and at 20/1 the market has left him alone entirely.
Hold The Serve is our win selection at 5/1 and Ace Of Spades our each way play at 20/1. Murphy’s progressive improver carries a light weight on the back of three wins while Skelton’s course and distance winner is quietly fancied by a trainer who knows this race better than almost anyone in Britain.
Nobody is talking about Masked Man. The television previews have not lingered on him. The market has left him alone at 14/1 while the noise surrounds Bossman Jack and Ballyfad. That suits us perfectly. Three runs over hurdles, two wins and a Grade Two second which is the only blemish on his record, and that blemish came in defeat to a horse who has since gone on to show serious ability. The breeding is Masked Marvel out of an Irish Wells mare, a pedigree that screams stamina, and everything about his profile suggests that two miles four furlongs on a flat galloping Aintree track is precisely the conditions he has been waiting for. His owners Simon Munir and Isaac Souede have won Grade Ones at this meeting before and they do not travel to Aintree with horses they do not believe in. JJ Slevin takes the ride and that booking alone should make people pay attention. This is a jockey who won a Grade One at the Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown in February on Talk The Talk and who does not accept Grade One rides at spring festivals without genuine belief that the horse beneath him can win.
Ian Ogg of Sporting Life flagged this horse specifically before the meeting as one with significant promise in his first season, impressing with two wins and a Grade Two second in three starts, with a light season and the ability to handle quicker ground that could be advantageous stepping up in trip. Five year olds have won ten of the last eleven renewals of this race. Masked Man is a five year old. He arrives here with a completely unexposed profile, a high ceiling, a quality jockey, powerful connections and a price that reflects none of it. The race sets up for him and the market has handed us the gift of 14/1 for an each way bet.
Masked Man is our each way selection for the Mersey Novices Hurdle at 14/1. Unexposed, well bred, powerfully owned and ridden by a jockey with recent Grade One form.
The form reference that makes Mr Hope Street so interesting in this race is one that most people will have scrolled past without fully appreciating. Earlier this season he finished third in a graduation chase at Haydock behind The Jukebox Man and Iroko, two horses who have since gone on to operate at the very top level of jump racing. The Jukebox Man won the King George VI Chase at Kempton at Christmas. Iroko was the ante-post favourite for the Grand National at various stages this season. Mr Hope Street finished third behind both of them receiving weight in a race his syndicate described as top class. That is not the form of a horse who belongs in a Premier Handicap on the third day of the Grand National Festival. That is the form of a horse who has been underestimated by the market and who arrives here with more class than his recent runs suggest. A knock mid season forced 105 days off the track and his return at Sandown in March was a gentle reintroduction rather than a serious bid for glory. Dan Skelton said on Friday he will improve a lot from that day and that everything about the flat Aintree track should really suit him.
The ownership angle adds another layer that the market has not fully priced in. Mr Hope Street carries the colours of the Noel Fehily Racing Syndicate, founded by the former champion jockey who won the Champion Hurdle, the World Hurdle and the Ryanair Chase during his riding career. Fehily knows what a good horse feels like and he built his syndicate around this horse for a reason. Harry Skelton takes the ride for a trainer who knows this track and this type of race better than almost anyone in Britain. The market move from 4/1 to 11/4 before racing tells you that others have arrived at the same conclusion through different routes. When money moves with that kind of purpose on Grand National morning it is rarely without reason.
Mr Hope Street is our selection for the Freebooter Handicap Chase at 11/4. Elite form references from Haydock, a trainer brimming with confidence this morning, a champion jockey’s syndicate and a track that suits him perfectly. The market has already started to find him and RHR are happy to follow.
Five starts at Aintree. Never once outside the first two. Strong Leader won this race in 2024 by four and a quarter lengths, was second twelve months ago behind Hiddenvalley Lake, and won a Grade Two at this track in December 2024. Olly Murphy has skipped Cheltenham again this season with the sole purpose of having this horse fresh and ready for today, exactly as he did in 2024 when the plan paid off in spectacular fashion. He said this week he is going there full of confidence and that Strong Leader is an awful lot better at Aintree than anywhere else. Honesty Policy, Hiddenvalley Lake and Home By The Lee all have claims but none of them carry an Aintree record anywhere close to this one. Sean Bowen knows every stride of this horse and the combination is unbeaten at this track across their career together.
Strong Leader is our selection for the Liverpool Hurdle at 7/2. Five Aintree starts, never outside the first two, a trainer who has pointed at this race all season and a horse that simply saves his best for Merseyside.
Our full RHR Grand National preview and five selections are covered in a dedicated blog. Read it here – RHR GRAND NATIONAL 2026 PREVIEW
This Grade Two bumper brings down the curtain on the Grand National Festival and both of our selections arrive having won their last start. One Knight is a six year old trained by Emma Lavelle who has a fine record with bumper horses and arrives here in the form of his life having won his last two completed starts. Jack Tudor takes the ride, a jockey who has been in excellent form at this meeting in the past and who knows how to deliver a horse on a flat galloping track. At 9/1 the market has left him alone but a horse who wins his last two starts before a Grade Two bumper at Aintree deserves more respect than that price suggests.
Ronnie Russet represents the value in the race at 10/1. The five year old has won his last two starts back to back and carries the wind surgery flag which on a horse still on the way up is a straightforward positive. Jedd O’Keeffe places his horses with care and the fact this horse was fancied in the early market before drifting tells you the yard had quiet confidence in him. Five year olds have dominated this race historically and Ronnie Russet fits that profile perfectly alongside a form line that points to a horse building through his races at exactly the right time.
One Knight is our each way selection at 9/1 and Ronnie Russet our second each way play at 10/1. Both arrive having won last time out, both fit the age profile this race consistently rewards and both represent the kind of bigger price that makes Grand National day even more interesting.
All of today’s RHR selections are best followed with Star Sports, our recommended bookmaker partner. Head over and get set up at Star Sports — and whatever happens today, enjoy the racing.
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