IRISH GRAND NATIONAL

17:00 Fairyhouse - Irish Grand National Whether you like it or loath it it's safe to say that trainer Gordon Elliott has a very strong hand in the thirty runner field.

Elliott is set to saddle eleven of the runners declared and it's hard not to fancy some of his charge.

With so many set to go to post I'm picking out a quartet to side with and three of the four come from Elliott's yard.

As I've mentioned him so much I may as well start with the residents of Cullentra House that I like best.

I personally backed Farclas antepost for the Aintree version yet sadly didn't take up his invitation at Liverpool. I'm hoping that with an extended break now under his belt he'll be set to fire now at Fairyhouse. Promising jockey Shane Fitzgerald takes an additional five pounds off the horses back which should be of benefit and with a solid run at Navan last time out he should relish this return to a marathon trip after a very good 5th in Aintree's big race back in 2021.

Just like with Farclas I find myself picking another two horses who didn't head to Liverpool just a few weeks back. Both have former course success and neither have ever hit the deck in their respective careers. The first of said duo put in a decent enough performance at the Cheltenham Festival when finishing 10th in the Ultima. Floueur was handled with reasonable degrees of caution at Cheltenham and was perhaps given too much to do when out the back for most of the race. Whether or not that was with an eye on this race I'm not so sure but I'm happy to take a chance on a horse who's pretty young and has a future with an upward trajectory. The third and final selection from the Elliott camp is currently a massive price but as mentioned above with a course victory and solid jumping I feel the JP McManus owned Aramax is drastically overpriced. His course record here at Fairyhouse reads 3rd 1st and 4th in three course starts. He's aged six and as such seems somewhat of an unknown quantity. Of course he doesn't have the form in the book that most of his rivals have but we've seen massive priced winners of this race before and with plenty of bookmakers offering advanced placed terms I could see him sneaking into the money.

The sole runner I've sided with that isn't trained by Elliott is Enjoy D'Allen who finished 3rd in this race last year and was well fancied at Aintree earlier in the month. He was travelling well before going for his second lap and getting rid of his jockey at the first (the second time around) if he's fine after unshipping his rider he can produce another bold showing in this race once again. FARCLAS (E/W)

FLOUEUR (E/W)

ARAMAX (E/W)

ENJOY D'ALLEN (E/W)

written by Rory Paddock