Jake Price's Ante-Post Tip for the Topham Chase at Aintree

The weights for the 2026 Topham Handicap Chase on the Friday of the Aintree Grand National Festival were revealed this week, and as such we got some updated Irish marks following the conclusion of the Cheltenham Festival.

Below I have listed all 22 of the ratings for the Irish entries:

It is also worth noting that the following horses hold multiple entries over the next couple of weeks, and therefore some are unlikely to turn up in the Topham:

Friday 10th April – Topham Handicap Chase (Premier) – 2m5f

We already knew that Madara was raised 10lbs for his Plate win at the Cheltenham Festival following the BHA handicap amendments, but to be honest I was more interested to see what type of rise WILL THE WISE would be given following his second-place effort in the same race. He hampered a fair few rivals at the first fence that day when uncharacteristically jumping out to his right, but he was fine thereafter and settled down into a nice rhythm from his prominent position.

What is most interesting about his run in the Plate off a mark of 139 though is that Jockey Keith Donoghue was overweight by 2lbs, meaning he carried 11st1lbs rather than the 10st13lbs written down in the racecard. This essentially means he was running off a mark of 141, but despite that extra weight, he jumped up into a lead at the third last flight travelling very smoothly.

He looked to be going easiest of all for a few hundred yards, but once they turned for home Madara was cantering all over him, and jumped on to go and score by seven and a half lengths. What you would have to say though is that WILL THE WISE ran a cracker in second place when beating the remainder of the field by upwards of 1.75 lengths, and whilst it wasn’t the deepest of renewals by any stretch, it was still a very good performance considering the extra weight he carried.

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His best asset is certainly his jumping, and that bodes well for a test over the Grand National fences – albeit we obviously won’t know exactly how he will take to them until he gives them a go. Something which should undoubtedly suit him at Aintree better than at Cheltenham though is the trip, as this 2m5f course with a stamina zapping run-in should be much more up his street compared to 2m4f on the Old Course at Cheltenham, which is a much more relative test of speed. This assertation is backed up by the fact that in the past he has flirted with being a three miler, but Gavin Cromwell is adamant that he does not quite see out that sort of trip.

If we go back and look at some of his runs over fences this season he has already racked up plenty of decent form and experience, mainly owing to the fact that connections started him off over fences last Spring in order to start getting some runs into him. His reappearance at Galway in October was a very good half-length second behind Ol Man Dingle (145) off level weights, and next time he jumped superbly when beating Prends Garde A Toi and Waterford Whispers over 2m2f at the same track.

Those four runs were necessary in order for him to qualify for the Grade 3 Troytown Handicap Chase at Navan in November where he was a late drifter out from 9/2 to 7/1, and that was mainly owing to the fact that Gavin Cromwell’s stable were in atrocious form that weekend. Despite the stable form he ran a belter in fourth place however, and perhaps stamina did just start to wane over that three-mile trip on Heavy ground.

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After a fairly disappointing run in the Paddy Power Handicap Chase when only tenth over Christmas, WILL THE WISE was purposely left off the track over the depths of winter to avoid bottomless ground, and he probably needed a bit of time off following a busy Autumn campaign. What he was able to produce first time up at Cheltenham following a break was very pleasing in that sense, and the 31 days between the Plate and the Topham should be an ideal turnaround.

If we look back towards his task at hand on the 10th April then it is worth noting his massive weight swing with Madara, for whom he will now officially be 6lbs better off at the weights following the handicapper’s assessment to assign him an official rating of 143, but as we have already discussed due to the overweight that advantage is essentially extended to 8lbs.

What will be interesting though is who ends up as top weight in the Topham, as currently Solness is making the weights off 166. Should he run then our selection will be down to carry 10st5lbs, which clearly is a weight that Keith Donoghue would not be able to make. That means we are likely to have either Conor Stone-Walsh (3) or Eoin Staples (5) on board, and both would clearly help to further increase that swing with Madara. In order for Keith to ride the weights would need to rise by 10lbs, and that is unlikely with Matata (159) and last year’s winner Gentleman De Mee (158) two likely runners.

Overall then we are dealing with a fantastic jumper who has enough tactical pace to lie up in a Plate on the Old Course at the Cheltenham Festival, but that also has enough stamina to finish fourth in a Troytown and run so well in Pertemps races over Hurdles. He is also going to be upwards of 8lbs (likely 11 or 13 depending on Jockey) better off with the current Ante-Post favourite for the race for only a 7.5 length deficit, and they now meet in a race which should suit the Irish raider better. Trainer Gavin Cromwell has also outlined that this race is the plan, and that ‘the trip here will be perfect for him’.

WILL THE WISE 1pt EW (4 Places, ¼ Odds) @ 14/1