Grand National horses from England - Midlands

Latenightpass has spent most of his career running in point to points and hunter chases and has had plenty of success in those spheres. The eleven-year-old gelding has finished first or second in fourteen of his nineteen point to point races. He has had three attempts at the Aintree Foxhunters and has completed on all three occasions, finishing first, second and fourth so he looks a very safe conveyance over the Grand National fences.  Trained for most of his career by Tom Ellis, Latenightpass was briefly swapped to the yard of Dan Skelton for the early part of this season where he further enhanced his Grand National claims by winning over the Cross Country course at the December Cheltenham meeting. Now back in the care of Ellis, he is finally going to step up in distance over the Aintree fences and contest the Grand National where he will be partnered by his regular pilot, amateur rider, Gina Edwards.  One possible drawback could be age. Horses aged over ten do not have a great recent record in the Grand National. Since Pineau De Re's win as an eleven-year-old in 2014, there have been sixty-nine horses aged eleven or older that have ran in the Grand National and just four have been placed. However, Latenightpass will definitely appeal to lots of Grand National backers with his extensive experience of the Grand National fences and the fact that he has won over the 3m 5f Cheltenham Cross Country course. 

Galia Des Liteaux looks to be a lively contender for the Grand National and will surely be trained to the minute as Dan Skelton looks to try and gain every bit of prize money he can in his bid to become champion trainer.  This eight-year-old mare has only run once in a handicap so far but that run was a cracker when just failing to catch My Silver Lining when trying to give that horse 20lb in the 3m 5f Classic Chase at Warwick. The winner that day has gone on to run two further excellent races when second in the Grand National trial at Haydock and then a close up third in the Midlands National so the form of the Warwick race looks very strong. My Silver Lining is now 11lb higher than at Warwick. Dan Skelton has always said that Galia Des Liteaux needs soft ground to be at her best and three of her four wins have come on soft or heavy ground. The question mark against this mare’s chance at Aintree would have to be her most recent run at Exeter in a listed Mares race where she disappointed when an odds-on favourite.  It’s difficult to be conclusive as to why she disappointed at Exeter. Perhaps she had a much harder race than the trainer thought at Warwick and hadn’t properly recovered? Perhaps she doesn’t enjoy an undulating track such as Exeter (four runs on undulating tracks have seen her return figures of 3514 with the win an odds-on victory in a very uncompetitive race).  Given her progressive profile (apart from Exeter), stamina at 3m 5f, excellent stable form and her liking for soft ground (which looks likely at Aintree) she makes lots of appeal for the Grand National at odds of around 50/1 (as of 2nd April).