Scottish Grand National Day Betting Tips
The Welsh, Irish and English Grand Nationals have all been and gone now and we’ve just got the Scottish equivalent left. It takes place at Ayr on Saturday and there’s a large prize fund of £200,000 on offer.
Ayr’s biggest race of the season takes place at 15:35 and a field of 21 has been declared, meaning it’ll be a tricky puzzle to solve. The Scottish Champion Hurdle (14:20) should also be a cracker and there’s a Dan Skelton runner at the head of the market.
We’ve got seven races to look forward to in total and our expert has picked out their strongest fancies in each, including an improving Tom Lacey runner in the big one.
13:10 - Scotty Brand Handicap Chase
There’s £75,000 on offer for this competitive-looking handicap chase and the Paul Nicholls-trained SANS BRUIT could run another big race. He comes alive during the spring and made a bold bid to complete a hat-trick of wins in the Red Rum at Aintree last time out. Finishing third on that occasion, a similar effort will give him every chance here.
Selection: Sans Bruit @ 3/1
13:45 - CPMS Novices' Champion Handicap Chase
DIAMOND DEALER represents Dan Skelton and the newly crowned champion trainer remains in decent form. This horse was a comfortable winner of a competitive race at Kelso on his most recent start and a 3lb rise looks extremely generous with that in mind.
Selection: Diamond Dealer @ 7/2
14:20 - Scottish Champion Hurdle
It is often a good idea to side with progressive novices in competitive handicaps like this and the Philip Hobbs & Johnson White-trained CAPTAIN HUGO fits the bill. He produced a good performance to win the Morebattle Hurdle at Kelso last time and this looks like a good piece of placement.
Selection: Captain Hugo @ 9/2
14:55 - Seafield Trophy Mares' Handicap Hurdle
TWISTTHENIGHTAWAY was a fair third behind Charisma Cat on debut in a bumper and has turned a corner over hurdles since switching to handicaps. She has won a couple of Class 4 races with more in hand than the official margins suggests and further progress is expected.
Selection: Twistthenightaway @ 5/2
15:35 - Scottish Grand National
Paul Nicholls’ QUEBECOIS looked like a potential graded horse when winning his maiden hurdle in good style last term but he was a little disappointing after that. It’s worth noting that he did manage to win at this meeting last year, in a novice handicap. Perhaps the four-mile trip will suit and he ran a nice race to finish third in the Ultima at Cheltenham last month.
Selection: Quebecois @ 15/2
16:15 - Novices' Hurdle
Gordon Elliott has an impressive strike-rate at Ayr this season so any runners he sends over need to be considered. APACHE TRIBE bolted up in a Listowel bumper in September and it was a similar story when following up in a maiden hurdle here in February. Making his stable debut here, there should be loads more to come and he’s likely to be there or thereabouts.
Selection: Apache Tribe @ 11/8
16:48 - National Hunt Flat Race
John McConnell is a regular raider at the Scottish tracks and his runner BRADY HARTSFIELD has finished second on both of his bumper starts to date. He was second behind a stablemate in a Listed contest at Limerick last time and should be in the mix on that evidence.
Selection: Brady Hartsfield @ 3/1
Odds correct at time of publication but subject to change