Purple Grand National Horses

Monty’s Star always promised to be a better chaser than hurdler, despite winning at Grade Three level over the smaller obstacles, and he has run some great races over fences, including when runner-up at the Cheltenham Festival.

That said, Henry De Bromhead’s charge has won only one of his starts over fences to date, a novice chase at Punchestown over two years ago. The ten-year-old gelding finished second in two Grade One chases in his novice year but since then he has found races at the very top level beyond him including when finishing fourth, beaten nearly twenty lengths, in last year’s Cheltenham Gold Cup.

Monty’s Star has been popular in the early betting market for the 2026 Grand National, presumably because of the good showing of classier horses in the last few Nationals, but Monty’s Star doesn’t seem particularly well handicapped from a mark of 159. He finished well beaten in his only race in a handicap from that exact mark when virtually tailed off in this season’s Coral Gold Cup at Newbury. Part of this horse’s appeal is down to the feats of his trainer who seems to have perfected the skill of getting a horse to peak for the right race. Obviously the stable won the National five years ago and punters are often attracted to stables who have performed well in the race before. 

Quai De Bourbon announced himself on the big stage when finishing third in the Martin Pipe at the Cheltenham Festival a couple of seasons ago as that’s often a race Willie Mullins uses for his potential top-class chasers. 

Unfortunately Quai De Bourbon’s novice chase chase year didn’t go entirely to plan as he was underwhelming when winning at odds-on on his belted chasing debut and then unseated his rider when quietly fancied for the Brown Advisory at the Cheltenham Festival. He was then brought down at Aintree and then finished a decent third when well-backed in the Irish National.

This season doesn’t appear to have gone to plan either with the son of Ivanhowe pulling up in two big handicaps before a decent run when third in a race over a distance likely to be short of his best.

Willie Mullins has said in various stable tours that Quai De Bourbon is still a horse he rates very highly and he feels he will benefit from running on spring ground. 

As the seven-year-old is still relatively unexposed a race like the Grand National at Aintree could be exactly what he needs and he appeals as a good value bet at the current prices.

Usually it would be a concern to see a horse contesting the Grand National off a long break but Marble Sands has got an excellent record in those circumstances and has returned figures of 21162 when returning from a 100 day break or more.

Whilst only making the track three times since last April, all his runs have been very good with things starting off a run on the flat where he just lost out in a photo-finish at Goodwood. A return to fences was next up for the ten-year-old where he got back into the winners’ enclosure when winning a very competitive handicap chase at Cheltenham’s November meeting. From there he headed to Wetherby on Boxing Day and was unfortunate to bump into the very well-handicapped Konfusion who ended up seven lengths ahead of Marble Sands at the line.

The question for most punters would be if this horse has enough class for a race like the Grand National and most would look to his race in the Topham over the National fences last season where he was beaten over twenty-five lengths by Gentleman De Mee. It could be that the distance of the Topham was insufficient and he was seen in a much better light when winning over nearly three-and-a-half miles in that aforementioned race at Cheltenham but it’s still a big jump to being competitive at Aintree.

That said, Marble Sands might appeal to those who like to include a big-price horse in their selections, especially with the additional angle of his excellent record when fresh.