Aintree Festival Day 3 Preview

The Aintree Grand National Festival concludes on Saturday afternoon with three more Grade 1 contests, including the Liverpool Hurdle, alongside the main event itself, the Grand National.

They race at Aintree from 13:20-17:35, with the first five live races on ITV Racing for terrestrial viewers, and our expert, Enda McElhinney, has selected three horses to follow on the Aintree card outside of the Grand National itself.

13:20 Aintree – Park Of Kings

PARK OF KINGS was an eye-catcher when staying on from a good way back to finish fifth in the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle at Cheltenham last month.

Paul Nolan’s son of Walk In The Park was eventually fifth there, behind the Gordon Elliott-trained winner, Wodhooh. That mare ran a cracker in placing second in the Grade 1 Aintree Hurdle here on Thursday behind Lossiemouth.

Park Of Kings will have Mark Walsh on board this time and runs from an unchanged mark of 132. The longer trip could be a plus – he’s only tackled three miles once before – and drying spring ground is optimal for his chances of snaring a big prize.

13:55 Aintree – Lulamba

Nicky Henderson saddles LULAMBA in this Grade 1 Turners Mersey Novices’ Hurdle, the Seven Barrows chief having opted for this contest over the 4YO Hurdle on Thursday with his Triumph Hurdle runner-up.

Lulamba was defeated in that Cheltenham Festival contest three weeks ago, but emerged with credit in the bank.

He got the better of favourite East India Dock up the Cheltenham hill, but Nico de Boinville and his partner had their pockets picked by the flying finish of 100/1 hurdles debutant Poniros for the irrepressible Willie Mullins team.

The Irishman saddles Kappa Jy Pyke and Funiculi Funicula here, but they will both require a major step forward on their hurdles form shown so far.

As the sole juvenile in this line-up, Lulamba gets 10lb from his rivals and that should make him a very tough nut to crack with the step up in trip to 2m4f also very much expected to bring about further improvement.

15:05 Aintree – Strong Leader

Teahupoo was denied back-to-back Stayers’ Hurdles wins at Cheltenham by Bob Olinger last time and, given he’s at his absolute best when fresh, the 23-day turnaround is a worry for Gordon Elliott’s charge now.

Not so STRONG LEADER, winner of this Liverpool Hurdle in good style last season and, once more, kept away from the Cheltenham Festival with this race in mind.

Olly Murphy’s charge was too strong for the likes of Buddy One and Hiddenvalley Lake in this race last year and, as he did then, returns after a solid if not spectacular effort in the Cleeve Hurdle in January on his most recent start.

His Aintree record is stellar, with figures of 121 around here, and his connections look set for further reward for prioritising this contest.