Blue Grand National Horses

The Gordon Elliott trained gelding is a winning machine having won thirteen times already with two sequences of five wins in a row.   The highlight of his wins so far was undoubtedly defeating Gold Cup winner A Plus Tard two seasons ago in the Grade One Savills Chase at Leopardstown. Since that memorable victory, Galvin's form has dipped and he has recorded just one win in his last ten races. The slump in form has prompted Gordon Elliott to pursue a Cross Country route with the ten-year-old gelding and Galvin took to the discipline immediately when finishing runner-up to Delta Work in his first race over the Cross Country obstacles at last season's Cheltenham Festival. This season has seen three defeats for Galvin, including two in handicaps on the Cheltenham Cross Country course but he ran really well when finishing fourth in the Grade Two Boyne Hurdle at Navan in February. The ground that day was heavy which would definitely not have been to Galvin's liking but he put in a promising performance and was only five lengths. Undoubtedly at his best on a sounder surface, Galvin is eleven pounds lower than when attempting the Grand National for the first time last season where he unseated Davy Russell at the first fence. At the unveiling of the Grand National weights this year, trainer Gordon Elliott was sweet on Galvin's chance at Aintree and the handicapper has undoubtedly taken a risk with the mark he has given the gelding for this year's Grand National. The main drawbacks to Galvin's hopes would be his preference for good ground and his jumping which can be chancy. However, given he could now be extremely well handicapped, those concerns could be risks worth taking.

Kitty’s Light would be every owners’ dream horse having won seven races in her career including an amazing hat-trick in the Eider Chase, the Scottish National and the bet365 Gold Cup.  Those last three wins have seen this mare go up fifteen pounds in the handicap but her very astute trainer Christian Williams will no doubt have her in A1 condition in the Aintree Grand National. Williams has kept Kitty’s Light predominantly to hurdles this season with three unplaced efforts as well as another unplaced outing over fences in the Coral Gold Cup at Newbury.  Everytime Kitty’s Light runs the commentators stress how small she is but obviously that has not stopped her winning all these big races! She is a mare that comes to herself late in the season (five of her seven wins have come from the end of February onwards) and performs best when the ground is on the quicker side of good to soft. Kitty’s Light has been allocated a handicap mark for Aintree of six pounds higher than her final win at Sandown but that doesn’t look insurmountable, especially as she will run in the National with a low weight.  Soft ground would perhaps scupper her chances as her record on that surface reads: 4773 but her trainer has stated that he is still very sweet on her prospects.