Aintree day one tips: Banbridge can make freshness advantage count
BIG PLAYER: The step up in trip to two and a half miles should suit Banbridge. Picture: Healy Racing
With results at the Fairyhouse Irish Grand National meeting serving as a reminder of just how much competing at Cheltenham can take from a horse, it is difficult to look beyond Banbridge in the Grade One Racehorse Lotto Manifesto Novices’ Chase, the race which gets the 2023 Aintree Grand National meeting underway on Thursday.
Joseph O’Brien’s runner was an intended runner in the Turners Novices' Chase at Cheltenham, but the ground was against him, and connections’ decision to bypass the meeting can reap reward. Last time out, at the Dublin Racing Festival, he finished a well-beaten second behind El Fabiolo, but there was no shame in that as the winner followed up in the Arkle Chase at Prestbury Park.
