Crystal D´ainay Going Forward For The Betfair Bowl

Crystal D´Ainay could switch from hurdles to fences in the £150,000 Betfair Bowl, the feature event on the opening day of the John Smith´s Grand National meeting at Aintree, Thursday, April 7.

A leading staying hurdler trained by Alan King, the six-year-old has yet to run over fences in Britain but was a winner over them as a three-year-old in France when with Guillaume Macaire.

He is a dual Grade Two scorer over hurdles in Britain but his latest run was a disappointing one, being pulled up behind Inglis Drever in the Grade One Ladbrokes World Hurdle at Cheltenham on March 17.

King has recently schooled the talented performer over fences and said today: 'Crystal D´Ainay schooled extremely well and seems in very good form.

'He will certainly be entered for the Betfair Bowl and we will make a decision closer to the race.

'I am planning to school him twice more, see what else is in the race and what the ground is like before making the final decision.' Andrew Tulloch, Aintree´s clerk of the course, commented: 'The Betfair Bowl gets the meeting off to a cracking start on Thursday, April 7 and we are delighted to have Betfair on board.

'Hopefully, their generous support will be repaid with a thrilling initial running of the Betfair Bowl.'

The Betfair Bowl, formerly called the Martell Cup, is run over three miles and one furlong of the Mildmay Course and was founded in 1984. The winners include many of the best chasers over the years, such as Wayward Lad, Desert Orchid, Barton Bank, See More Business, Florida Pearl and First Gold. Entries close on Saturday, April 2.

Betfair signed a three-year deal in December to become the Official Betting Partner of the John Smith´s Grand National meeting, which attracts more than 600 million television viewers worldwide.

The exclusive partnership includes the sponsorship of two races - the Betfair Bowl and the betfair.com Handicap Chase (Friday, April 8) - during the three-day meeting which runs from Thursday to Saturday, April 7-9, 2005.

Betfair will have on-course branding for the meeting, including a live in-running odds board positioned opposite the main grandstands. Betfair will also supply the official betting prices, which means that for the first time in its long history, the official odds for the Grand National will be in decimals rather than fractions.