2024 Irish Grand National Ante-Post Tip – DS
2024 Irish Grand National Ante-Post Selection
The 2024 Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse is exactly a week away and Dave Stevos is hoping to find the winner. He has already posted a couple of tips at big odds for Aintree, you can see them here and here. Check out who he is backing for the Irish version below.
April 1: Fairyhouse 5pm – 2024 Irish Grand National (Grade 3)
All the talk from UK trainers about ‘the Irish’ coming over and stealing all their prize money yet there is not a single UK horse entered for the 2024 Irish Grand National. You’d have thought that some of them might have followed Sophie Leech’s example with Madara at Leopardstown but no, the £500k pot must not be enough of a prize to tempt them.
So, we are left with the usual scenario. 33 horses remain in the running with 33% of them trained by Gordon Elliott. Willie Mullins only has five entered this year so thankfully, we’ll see some of the smaller stables get their chance to shine on the big stage.
Big Chance For Raffles
Tom Gibney won this a few years ago with Lion Na Bearnai and it has been brilliant to see him finally get a horse from a top owner this year. Simon Munir and Isaac Souede sent him Intense Raffles, a horse who lost his form in France, and Gibney has got him back on track. Two starts, two easy wins, both at Fairyhouse.
A bold jumping front runner, this horse looks an ideal type for this race and he’ll only be carrying 10st 7lbs if the top weight is declared. Obviously, he’s too short for the blog at 8/1 but I would love to see him run a big race and maybe more big owners might send a few nice horses Gibney’s way because he is well able to train them.
Course Form
For me, having Fairyhouse form in the book is a big plus for this contest. That’s what pointed me in the direction of Lord Lariat in 2022 and last year’s winner, I Am Maximus, had also run well here before.
If there was any prospect of decent ground, I’d be all over Digby for Red McLoughlin. He won a handicap hurdle at this meeting in 2022 and he shaped really well in a Beginners Chase here back in October. However, it has been an extremely wet month so far and if the weather forecast is correct, the ground is going to be heavy.
Porterstown Winner
With that in mind, I’m going to keep the faith with a horse that did us a big favour in the Porterstown Handicap over C&D back in December. John Flavin’s 9yo son of Well Chosen ended a torrid spell for the blog when winning that race for us at 25/1. That win came off a mark of 125 and he’ll be racing off 5lbs higher today.
Since that run, it has been the usual mixed bag from Street Value. I fancied him to run big in the Thyestes after a fine effort over 20f at Cork but he was always kept wide and in hindsight, it looked like a run designed to just keep him ticking over. You could say exactly the same thing about his last run at Punchestown where he was again pulled up.
Been The Plan
After he won here in December his trainer said he hoped to get him back to Fairyhouse for the big one in April. I’m hoping that he was telling the truth and that this race has always been the plan. He was going to win a chase at this meeting in 2023 off 125 when falling at the last so he could arguably be 2/2 over fences at this track.
Another big plus for this lad is the likley underhoof conditions. He has form figures of 311212PP3PP on heavy ground and I’m willing to put a line through those last two pulled up efforts at Gowran and Punchestown. He bounced back with a win after being pulled up at Carlisle before the Porterstown Chase, at odds of 50/1 hopefully history can repeat itself.
