Alan to be King at Ayr this Saturday!!

This Saturday sees the running of the Scottish Grand National at Ayr. It appears on paper that it is quite an open race and there are a quite a few horses that are closely matched. Miko de Beauchene must have a very good chance, given its light weight of 10′10 and is closely matched with Halcon Generlardais with their run in the Welsh Grand National. He will thrive on the forecast heavy ground and he run an excellent race at Cheltenham over hurdles, only finding Ballyfitz too good.

Alan King is double handed in this race he has Halcon Generlardais who is top weight and is the class act of the field. This horse was 4th in the gold cup and only beaten 16 lengths by the mighty Denman. Also Halcon was 2nd to the ante post favourite for this race, Miko de Beauchene, only beaten by a short head and is 5lbs better off in the weights. Due to Halcon Generlardais participation 51 horses have withdrew at the 5 day stage this is because they are out of the handicap and would be carrying too much weight.  

King also has Old Benny who will be 2lbs out of the handicap, but he will relish the conditions having won over 4 miles at Cheltenham when beating Over the Creek. Chocolate Thornton has not chosen which of these horses he will ride yet, so the best thing to do is to wait and see what happens because King could withdraw Halcon Generlardais in order that Old Benny can get in, or he might run both horses.

Another contender is Butlers Cabin who was running well in the English Grand National when unshipping Tony McCoy and has won the Irish Grand National in the past. However I think this race will come too quick for Butlers Cabin and the fall at Aintree might have taken a bit out of the horse.

Tony Martin is a shrewd trainer and he runs Patsy Hall, who was a disappointing 4th at Cheltenham, but is well handicapped. For me though Patsy Hall never appeared to stay the 3 miles, when virtually coming to a stand still behind An Accordian, so to think it will stay 4 miles seems a little optimistic and Patsy Hall is 2lb’s out of the handicap.

Openide, Burntoakboy and Noir et Vert all ran in the Kim Muir chase at Cheltenham where Openide was 2nd to High Chimes, Burntoakboy 3rd and Noir et Vert 4th. However Noir et Vert is a leading contender in the betting for this race, and hails from Ferdy Murphy’s yard who always primes horses for this race and he has a unbelievable record. Noir et Vert will also be very well handicapped running off 10 stone. Can it overturn 17 lengths behind Openide and 10 behind Burntoakboy over this longer trip?? The answer for me is quite possibly because Burntoakboy seems best at 3 miles, Openide isn’t very consistent and this is reflected in its price. I do not think any of these are good enough to win and they are all out of the handicap.

In conclusion I would recommend the following

2 points each way Old Benny at 7/1 with Skybet if you open an account with Skybet today you will receive £20 free bet

1 point each way Halcon Generlardais at 6/1 with Skybet

1 point each way Miko de Beauchene at 11/2 with Skybet