The three days at Aintree are not all about the Grand National and there are some other cracking races on offer especially the two handicap hurdles on the Thursday and Friday of the meeting and anyone looking to bet on Grand National should have a look at other options.
The Silver Cross Handicap Hurdle concludes the card on Liverpool Day (Thursday) and has some fairly strong trends which can really help in finding the winner, being a Listed race it always attracts some quality horses and the form pays to follow. Most important in the search for a winner is the fact that your horse has displayed winning form earlier in the season, the only exception to this are horses in the JP McManus ownership who are often laid out for this race.
Novices have a very good record in the race, taking five of the last nine and although last year's winner Sir Harry Ormesher wasn't a novice the three to chase him home were at the rewarding each-way odds of 14/1, 16/1 and 25/1. One trainer that should always be respected in this race is Peter Bowen; most notably he had the winner in 2005 with Genghis who won by six-lengths before going on to land the Scottish Champion Hurdle and his two entries Rio Gael and Natural Action catch the eye once again.
Just a final note on this competitive and decent handicap hurdle, try and avoid horses who like to race prominently as the majority of the last 10 winners have benefitted from a hold-up ride. It's something that also counts for the Grand National racing betting.
Moving on the longest handicap hurdle of the Grand National Meeting is the John Smith's Handicap Hurdle, and like the handicap hurdle that we examined earlier novices have a really good record of late, taking four of the last five runnings. JJ O'Neill is very man a trainer to take notice of in this event, with three winners – Refinement (2006), Albertas Run (2007) and Ringaroses (2010) – all being successful in recent years.
There isn't such a bias towards those held-up in this longer race and we would say that it is better to have a fit horse on your side with most winners having had plenty of races in the season; all bar one winner had raced at least four times earlier in the season. Of the races that you would like your contenders to have run in the Pertemps Final and the EBF Final at Sandown should be high on the list.
Of course the Grand National is the highlight of the card but don't forget these two valuable handicap hurdles where horses meeting these conditions have done very well of late.
