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The three day Aintree Grand National meeting begins today with a high-quality card featuring the reappearance of Champion Hurdle winner Constitution Hill in the Grade One Aintree Hurdle at 3.30pm.

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Constitution Hill has previously met and beaten four of his five rivals in today’s contest. The only one of the quintet he hasn’t raced against before is the Willie Mullins-trained veteran hurdler Sharjah. This will be Constitution Hill’s first attempt over a distance beyond two miles since his point-to-pointing days when in the care of Warren Ewing, but in all truth neither the opposition nor the trip should pose the slightest threat to the best horse in training.

Elsewhere on today’s card another recent Cheltenham Festival winner, Stage Star, aims for more Grade One success in the opening Racehorse Lotto Manifesto Novices' Chase. The Paul Nicholls’ trained seven-year-old ran out an impressive winner of the Turners Novice Chase last month and a similar display would set a high bar for his four rivals to aim at. There is not much to choose between the three Irish-trained runners, but of them preference is for Banbridge. The Joseph O’Brien-trained runner skipped the Turners at Cheltenham because of soft ground and is already proven over this intermediate distance.

The race of the day despite the forced withdrawal of Bravemansgame is the Aintree Bowl Chase Grade One. Four of the five remaining runners have realistic chances of winning despite them all coming off somewhat disappointing performances on their most recent outings. Ahoy Senor fell a little too far out in the Gold Cup to estimate where he might have finished, but he has a strong record at Aintree which includes an impressive victory over this course and distance in a novice event at last year’s meeting.

Conflated didn’t get the rub of the green in the Gold Cup when finishing in third place, just over six lengths adrift of the aforementioned Bravemansgame. He was only beaten a diminishing length by Clan Des Obeaux in this race last year and certainly cannot be ruled out.

Shishkin is becoming a difficult horse to predict and while this three miles is a step into the unknown for the former Arkle Chase winner he is yet another with the ability to play a major role. The fourth contender is former Gold Cup winner A Plus Tard. He was strongly supported for this year’s renewal at Cheltenham, but was yet to get competitive when he was hampered five fences from home and was soon pulled up. He has now pulled up on both outings since his emphatic Gold Cup victory in 2022 and in common with Shishkin comes with risks attached from a betting perspective.

The Foxhunter Chase which takes place over the Grand National fences is often a bit of a lottery and has thrown up winners at odds of 100/1, 66/1 and 50/1 in the last 12 running, but Irish-raider Winged Leader will take all the beating with a clear round of jumping. Narrowly denied by Billaway at last year’s Cheltenham Festival, Winged Leader arrives here on the back of three point-to-point victories and is the mount of leading Irish Amateur rider Barry O’Neill.

The Jewson Anniversary 4-Y-O Juvenile Hurdle could also go the way of Ireland with Triumph Hurdle third place finisher Zenta looking a cut above her opposition. Willie Mullins holds all the aces in the juvenile division this season and this JP McManus owned filly can add to the Closutton team’s Grade One haul.

The concluding contest on the opening afternoon at Aintree is a competitive looking Grade Two Bumper with a large field of 20 unexposed fillies and mares. Almost all the top yards in both Ireland and the UK are represented, but it might pay to side with the John McConnell-trained Notkeepinyagoing which bolted up at Galway back in September. Presuming she has been kept fresh for this assignment it would be no surprise to see her figure at decent odds.