Grand Sefton – Aintree – Saturday 11th November

Sunday can often be a very good time to have a good pick through any feature early closing races from an ante-post perspective during the jumps season – before the 5-day entry confirmation stage at midday on the Monday, which whittles down the picture often quite significantly.

Next Saturday’s Boylesports Grand Sefton Handicap Chase at 2.45 at Aintree is a grand example of such a race, as plenty of the 27 initial entries have run in the last week or so, making their participation unlikely, and a fair few others have other targets nominated in the various stable tours published recently.

The price lists before the Monday confirmation stage often don’t reflect these extra angles, and in the case of the Boylesports Grand Sefton, a couple of decent ante-post wagers present themselves in my opinion.

Firstly, it is worth explaining those that may not run – last year’s winner Al Dancer has run twice already this season and is usually best fresh, Monbeg Genius was pulled up at Ascot yesterday, Il Ridoto has a Haydock Graduation Chase as his initial target, while Killer Kane and Shakem Up’Arry have run poorly in the last week.

When you add in the fact that last season’s Grand National 6^th Born By The Sea has been in disappointing form this term, the likes of Now Where Or When, Jay Jay Reilly, Our Jet, Percussion, Minella Trump, Yccs Portocervo and Fix At All would all prefer better ground than it’s going to be, and suddenly the pool of potential runners and finding the winner, is down to single figures.

The shortlist for me then becomes Gesskille, City Chief, Fantastic Lady, Coopers Cross, Nassalam, Half Shot, Frero Banbou and Sail Away. That can be chiselled down further – with a skinny price ruling out Gesskille as a betting proposition right now, City Chief possibly needing a small field and further, Coopers Cross fell over the fences in April, Nassalam is a hard horse to catch right, Frero Banbou perhaps won’t be ideally suited to the 2m5f trip, and Half Shot needs further.

So, then there were two… Fantastic Lady and Sail Away.

Fantastic Lady was an excellent 2^nd in the Topham Chase last April, proving her suitability to the fences and also handling what was pretty soft ground. She had always handled a bit of give, but with this run in April and a large chunk of her French pedigree hinting at an ability to handle very soft ground, the forecast showers all week on top of what is already soft ground, should hold no terrors.

Fantastic Lady has also run very well fresh, with a win in a Listed Chase at Market Rasen on her first start last season boosting that assertion, alongside the fact that her Topham 2^nd was off the back of a break too.

At 9/1 each-way with Bet365, Coral or Ladbrokes, Fantastic Lady could easily be vying for favouritism with Gesskille come Saturday afternoon, and is definitely worth getting in the locker now. But perhaps the more appealing of the two ante-post bets at the prices is the 20/1 each-way with Bet365 and Unibet about Dan Skelton’s Sail Away.

A lightly raced type, who perhaps hasn’t been easy to train at times, Sail Away is just the type of horse that the Skeltons prosper with when targeting a particular race. For the last month or so, the trainer had been mooting a potential tilt at the Charlie Hall Chase with Sail Away, despite being only rated 145 after his Ayr romp in the spring.

It was actually his run before that at Chepstow over just shy of 2m4f on soft ground, where he gave recent Old Roan winner Jetoile a bit to think about, which highlights his suitably for being able to bowl along over an intermediate trip on soft ground as being perhaps his best set of conditions.

Sail Away’s jumping has generally been very sound, and with all of those factors at play, surely if he’s confirmed on Monday, then the 20/1 each-way with Bet365 and Unibet will be a distant memory as Sail Away’s chances will become much clearer to many.