After hitting the cross bar with two seconds and a third on day one at Aintree, Kevin Blake returns with three more picks for day two of the Grand National Festival.
The second day of the Grand National Festival at Aintree on Friday is another tough one for bettors to try and solve, but I'll give it my best shot and hopefully we can land on a winner or two.
The first race of interest is the William Hill Handicap Hurdle (1.45pm). Interestingly, just one Irish-based trainer (Cian Collins) has a runner here. After what transpired at the Cheltenham Festival with British-trained horses achieving disproportionate success in the handicaps, perhaps the Irish are of the view that they are better off staying at home for Fairyhouse and Punchestown rather than coming to the UK to race on a tilted playing field? Whatever the case may be, this prize will most likely stay on home soil and the Olly Murphy-trained ACT OF AUTHORITY is the one I favour.
Regular readers will recall that he was my selection for the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys' Handicap Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in this column and he represented us well enough by finishing a never-nearer fifth.
Unfortunately, the run of the race just didn't go his way, and he ended up further back than ideal in a race that favoured those more prominently placed. The first-time cheekpieces looked to have a positive effect there and I still believe he is well handicapped to win a competitive contest such as this, so I'm going to stick with him at what appeals as being a fair price.
The next race I am focusing on is the Oddschecker Sefton Novices' Hurdle (4.40pm) and you may notice a theme developing, as my selection is the Joseph O'Brien-trained ZEUS POWER. He is another one that was put up in this column for the Cheltenham Festival and he played a blinder for us by finishing a never-nearer third at 50-1 (put up at 80-1) in the Turners Novices' Hurdle.
However, as good a result as that was, it might have been even better had the race panned out more kindly for him. As was the case for much of the week, pace held up really well and Zeus Power was left with an awful lot of ground to make up.
He made a seriously good fist of what was a very tough task, finishing off very well indeed to grab third. He steps up in trip here and there is every chance that it will suit him well. This doesn't look as strong a race as he faced into at Cheltenham and a big run should be forthcoming.
The final contest on my agenda is the Debenhams Handicap Hurdle (5.15pm). Again, it is very competitive, but I think there is a very intriguing contender down the bottom of the weights in POURQUOI PAS PAPA. He is just a four-year-old, but benefits from a significant weight-for-age allowance and has loads of experience with six hurdle runs under his belt.
The most interesting of those runs came in the McCoy Contractors Juvenile Handicap Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival where he finished a fine fourth having been interfered with. That form appeals as being strong and he really is a fascinating contender against older rivals here.
