Colnel to pull rank!
Bobbyjo in 1999, the heavily-backed Papillon in 2000 and Monty's Pass two years ago have all taken the most coveted prize in jumps racing back to Ireland, and Colnel Rayburn can repeat the performance.
The nine-year-old is in the capable care of Paul Nolan, one of the rising stars of the training ranks and who most certainly knows what is required to lay one out for the big day.
His Cloone River landed a massive punt in the Galway Hurdle last year, a race which had been his aim since finishing runner-up 12 months previously, and the strapping Colnel Rayburn maybe not quite a Party Politics, but you get the idea has had Liverpool on the agenda for some time.
Desperate underfoot conditions will not be the order of the day but there should be some juice in the ground and that is in his favour, as is the booking of a master craftsman for the ride. Paul Carberry, who partnered Bobbyjo to a famous success for his father Tommy, gets the leg up and is the perfect man to have on your side in a race like this.
It is easy to imagine he will get the Colnel popping away quietly early on before creeping closer going out on to the second circuit, where the race invariably begins in earnest.
He is a horse who is unexposed over marathon trips, but was far from disgraced when third under top weight over three and a half miles on heavy ground at Punchestown on his penultimate start.
Classy and pacy enough to beat the very useful Central House in Grade Three company over two miles in November, he has not been over-raced by any means this season, with just the five starts to his name.
He has the right sort of weight on his back and comes here a relatively fresh horse so, granted the requisite luck needed around here, all looks set for a huge run.
Fellow Irish raider Hedgehunter heads the market, but whether he truly stays after his tired fall at the final fence last year is open to question.
