Aldrewood the answer
The Tom Mullins-trained ten-year-old, a dual Cheltenham Festival winner, is well treated by the race conditions and, with a fitness advantage over his two chief rivals, looks poised to break Gordon Elliott’s strangehold on this event, a race he has won for the last three years.
Alderwood won the Vincent O’Brien County hurdle at Cheltenham in 2012 and returned a year later to land the ‘Grand Annual’.
And, although he has not tasted success since then, he ran a cracker last time when fourth, under top-weight, in the Guinness Kerry National in Listowel, form boosted when the third Shanpallas captured Sunday’s Ladbrokes Munster National, in Limerick.
Beaten seven lengths in Listowel, Alderwood meets the Gigginstown duo, Don Cossack and Roi Du Mee on favourable terms, receiving 10lb. from both, and might have the edge.
Roi Du Mee landed this event in 2012 and 2013 before failing to cope with stable-companion Toner D’Oudairies last year. And, having beaten Sizing Europe in the ‘JNwine.com Champion Chase in Down Royal, his form tapered off last season.
Last year’s Drinmore winner Don Cossack, the mount of Bryan Cooper, might prove a bigger threat.
