Coral Scottish Grand National – Ayr 3.35 – Saturday 18th April

Following the declarations for the Aintree Grand National, it is worth a look at the make-up of the field for the Coral Scottish Grand National at 3.35 at Ayr next Saturday, as 6 of the top 7 in the weights are due to run in the famous race this Saturday.

This will not only allow greater chances to some of those lower down the list for the Scottish Grand National but also raise the weights so that a fair few more will be in the handicap proper. There is a final field of 30 allowed, and at number 41 on the list currently, there is a horse who I’ve long had as a potential massive improver upped to extreme trips in the shape of recent Go North Series Final winner Chasingouttheblues.

Many of you will remember that he was an ante-post bet for these pages in the Eider Chase, but he sidestepped that to prep for the Go North final, and connections were duly vindicated by winning not only his prep run at Catterick but the valuable final itself.

Chasingouttheblues has put in some quite extraordinary performances this season, as over the bare 3m on several occasions, he has shown a finishing effort which appeared as if he’d just been dropped in the race between the last two fences!

I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that he will improve massively for extreme distances, given he appears to have a ‘push-button’ type burst late on over 3m, and given he’ll be able to travel around in his comfort zone for 3m4f at Ayr, he will be then well placed to turn those turbos on again late.

The Scottish Grand National will be a different kind of race this year, without the marauding Willie Mulline battalions, and that means the 33/1 each-way with Bet365 about Chasingouttheblues is an option well worth taking as a 2-star ** ante-post play for WhichBookie before people cotton on to the shake-up the field will take at the 5-day confirmation stage on Monday.