Al Eile seeks Aintree hat-trick Al Eile is on target to bid for a third win in the Scottish and Newcastle Pub Enterprises Aintree Hurdle on Saturday week. John Queally sidestepped the Cheltenham Festival with his stable star to concentrate on the #160,000 Grade One contest over two and a half miles. Al Eile is a standing dish at the Liverpool venue for as well as winning the Aintree Hurdle in 2005 and 2007, he landed the Grade Two Novices´ Hurdle in 2004. "The intention is to go and he´s on target," said Queally. "He´s won the Aintree Hurdle twice and won there three times in all and it´s all systems go. "He had a nice run on the Flat in Harchibald´s race in Dundalk a month ago and we´ve just kept him ticking over since." Queally has no worries about the state of the going. "The ground´s normally OK," added Queally, who has booked Timmy Murphy, the successful rider in Al Eile´s three wins at Aintree. "At Aintree in the spring, it´s never too deep there." The County Waterford handler also revealed that Nina Carberry, who steered Where Now into third place in the John Smith´s Fox Hunters´ Chase 12 months ago, will be in the plate in the amateur riders´ Grand National next Thursday. "He´s won all his three point-to-points this year and we´re hoping for a big run from him again if we get cut in the ground," Queally concluded.
