Course specialists - who has run well at Aintree before? The Aintree Grand National Festival is looming large and promises three thrilling days of racing action on Merseyside from Thursday April 3rd to Saturday April 5th. Ahead of the second major spring jumps meetings, here are some horses potentially bound for Aintree that have thrived there before. Brighterdaysahead Gordon Elliott's mare was a major Champion Hurdle disappointment, but she was extremely stiff and sore behind the next morning and her trainer thinks she tweaked something early in the race at Cheltenham. Elliott has reported the Gigginstown House Stud-owned mare to be in good tune at home and a crack at the Grade 1 Aintree Hurdle - where she would likely meet Constitution Hill again - is being considered. Brighterdaysahead has suffered the only two defeats of her career in the Cotswolds and perhaps it is simply not her track. She was very impressive in winning her Grade 1 novice over 2m4f at Aintree last spring and the same course and distance could serve her well again this year. Ahoy Senor The Lucinda Russell-trained Ahoy Senor was a Gold Cup casualty at Cheltenham, coming to grief on the second circuit and before he had played his cards. The 10-year-old had also been pulled up in his previous outings at Haydock and Windsor this season, but he tends to be a different animal at Aintree. He won Grade 1s as a novice over hurdles and fences at the track and has subsequent form figures of 3223 in open graded company as a chaser at the Liverpool layout. He hasn't won since January 2023, a sequence that stands at 12 runs, but if his luck is to change, Aintree might be the place. Famous Clermont Famous Clermont won the Foxhunters' at Aintree in 2023 after failing to get up the Cheltenham hill a month before. That remains his only start on Merseyside, but the 10-year-old is prominent in the betting for the same race on Thursday 3rd April. He warmed up by finishing second in a point-to-point in February at Milborne St Andrew and this race is likely to have been his long-term target. Langer Dan Langer Dan is perhaps the most notorious 'spring horse' currently in training. His form in the depths of winter is at odds with how he tends to run with some spring sun on his back. The Stayers' Hurdle at Cheltenham was a key target but trainer Dan Skelton opted out at the eleventh hour citing a respiratory infection. "We always trust him to come alive at this time of year. He will, however, go to Aintree with a bit of luck," was the Skelton assessment at that time, pinpointing the Aintree Hurdle, in which he finished a close third last season. That is one of two Aintree runs at this meeting for Langer Dan, the other being his win in the Grade 3 Alder Hey & Aintree Handicap Hurdle in 2022, while his two other Merseyside outings were respectable November/December defeats. Iroko Trainers Oliver Greenall & Josh Guerriero will be hoping Iroko is going to save his very best for Aintree and the Grand National itself this season. The big race has long been touted for the JP McManus-owned charge, who has run some good races in defeat at Haydock, Cheltenham and Kelso this season. The seven-year-old was third in the Grade 1 Sefton Novices' Hurdle behind Apple Away in 2023, while last April he was second behind Inothewayurthinkin in the Mildmay Novices' Chase on his most recent Aintree start. That form reads rather well with Gavin Cromwell's inmate now a Cheltenham Gold Cup hero, and Iroko could shine on Merseyside in the big one. Get €30 in FREE BETS with the bet365 sign up offer:
