Ginger Joe had a 11/4 winner on Day 1, he has three tips for Day 2 of Aintree Festival.
14:20 Aintree
Selection number one comes in the deeply competitive William Hill handicap hurdle and we have plenty of places available here. Impose Toi, Kopek De Mee and Be Aware are all going to prove popular here after being strong contenders at Cheltenham, but the angle into the race is Wreckless Eric (best price 11/1) for the Jonjo O’Neill team.
He has been a strong improver and he has an attribute that I really like for this assignment and it is the way he finishes his races. He likes to sit behind a fast pace which there is plenty of in this field and he he has that combination of speed and stamina which will really help him up the home straight here at Aintree. So far his racing has all been over 2 miles but this step up to 2m4f should be absolutely perfect for him and he comes into this race as a slightly fresher horse in comparison to the market leaders I mentioned.
A double-figure price for Wreckless Eric is very generous and the extra each way places on offer here need to be taken advantage of. This race sets up very well for the Jonjo O’Neill trained gelding and I am expecting a big run from him here.
14:55 Aintree
Next up I have a selection in the Grade 1 Top Novices Hurdle and this should be a cracker of a race. Tripoli Flyer is the main hope for the British team and he comes into this race with fair credentials but he will need to find more to trouble the front two in the market here.
Salvator Mundi is surely better than what we have seen so far, but he will need to improve plenty and he has around 10 lengths to find with the current market leader and my selection for the race Romeo Coolio (best price 13/8). Romeo finished third in the Supreme Novices Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival behind two very smart horses and I think a repeat performance alone would see him extremely tough to beat.
He has two really strong pieces of form at Cheltenham which is an undulating track but the best performance to date that Romeo Coolio has produced came at Leopardstown which is a flatter track and much more similar to Aintree.
I think he sets a very high standard and even though there are plenty of horses in here with potential, they need to improve a lot to reach the same level as the Gordon Elliott runner. He takes a lot of beating here.
17:15 Aintree
The final race on the day is a handicap hurdle for the conditional jockeys and I am very much drawn to the Paul Nicholls trained Afadil (best price 13/2) here who looks primed for a big run to me. He ran well in this race last year finishing third and he was unlucky not to finish closer if you watch the race back. He comes into this year’s renewal arguably in better form and his latest
effort at Sandown in the Imperial Cup offers very strong credentials. He finished just over a length behind Go Dante after finding plenty of trouble but he still managed to close the distance well when the gap came and he looks like he is just coming good again. He runs off a mark 6lb lower this year which bodes well for him and with 5 places on offer, he has to get to vote under Freddie Gingell
