THE AINTREE GRAND National Festival gets underway on Thursday and Betway’s Heed Your Hunch will provide tips for the first race televised on ITV, the feature and one other
Liverpudlians can rarely be accused of doing things by halves and the way they kick off the Grand National meeting is no different — with four consecutive Grade Ones to get us started.
The Doom Bar Anniversary Juvenile Hurdle (2.20) sees the winners of the two key Cheltenham juvenile races go head-to-head. Pentland Hills’ win was overshadowed by the loss of Sir Erec at Cheltenham and he will again have to contend with a Joseph O’Brien runner in the shape of Band of Outlaws.
The handicapper has penalised O’Brien’s four-year-old ten pounds for that success so upping him in grade is the only option for connections. That revised mark puts Band of Outlaws (6/4) right up there in terms of top recent juveniles.
There is a suspicion he could have been a contender in the Triumph. Band of Outlaws was much more impressive than Pentland Hills on the flat, and he can get the better of him — and the rest — at Aintree.
The Betway Bowl Chase (2.50) on Thursday is a retrieval mission for many of the Gold Cup also-rans, or in the case of Kemboy (11/4), hardly-got-a-run. While his stablemate won the Gold Cup, Kemboy was cantering around riderless without a care in the world, having unseated David Mullins early on.
Connections immediately identified this race as his next target. Given what happened at Cheltenham, he will arrive fresh and the flatter track should suit him.
There are lakes envious of the depth on show in The Betway Aintree Hurdle (3.25), but Buveur D’Air — a festival faller in March — will be looking to bounce back.
Buveur D’Air (4/5) has fewer questions to answer than most as he is still only eight and a dual Champion Hurdle winner with two previous victories in this one. His error at Cheltenham is just a risk that top-class two-mile hurdlers take — they are not careful, they are brave.
Buveur D’Air’s jumping is not a major concern. He is still an under-appreciated champion, who can make amends here.
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Eric Cantona has to be on that list surely?!
Everyone of them had a good reason to retire. Mortimers one was his ego
Former Ipswich Town goalkeeper Shane Supple retired at the age of 22. He said at the time he had fallen out of love with the game.
Conor Mortimer’s retirement shocking? Nothing shocking about what a guy with such a big ego could do. He had often thrown his toys out of his pram before that. James Horan was delighted to see him go and played a part in it and Mayo have been better off since. I don’t think there was any phone call to him to try persuade him to change his mind. Mortimer was not that liked by his fellow county players and didn’t get on great with his fellow students in DCU. Most thought he was a sh1te
Conor Mortimer between Magic Johnson and Jordan !!
Muamba was hardly going to keep playing
To those who plead “Oh but what about this guy and that guy, Cantona and Bjorg?!”
The headline says 6 shocking retirements, not ALL shocking retirements so chill out.
Cantona was
What about Bjorn Borg.
Get Conor Mortimer out of this list.
Magic Johnson retired in November 1991 but was in the USA “Dream Team” for the 92 Olympics so it wasn’t much of a retirement
Martina Hingis retired at 23 to pursue a “media” career, only to be banned for cocaine abuse a few years later after a return to the sport.
Alan Hansen could have played on