Grand National Lucky Dip
We've picked a grand national horse at random for you. You can also pick your horse based on it star sign, the colour of the Jockeys silks or where the horse is trained. Good Luck!
Favori De Champdou
Favori De Champdou’s career looked like it had plateaued after he won three novice hurdles and went off only 7/1 for the Albert Bartlett hurdle at Cheltenham as he failed to live up to big expectations of him in his novice chase year.
He did manage to win three races but fell short when pushed up into the top races. A season in handicaps followed and again he failed to cut much ice in the top races and managed to win just one small race that season.
He appeared to be following that decline again at the start of this season after being well beaten in two top handicaps in November and connections must have thought their move into cross country races with something of a last resort.
Gordon Elliott sent him over for the December Cross Country handicap at Cheltenham where he fell at the water jump, suggesting that he might not find cross country a solution to his run of bad form. However, something must have clicked as on his next start over regulation fences he was revitalised and took one of the biggest handicaps in Ireland (the Paddy Power over Christmas) at the understandaby large odds of 66/1.
Next up was a return to Cheltenham and the cross country circuit and this time Favori De Champdou made no mistake running out a convincing eight-and-a-half length victor and was thereafter installed as favourite for the cross country chase at the Cheltenham Festival.
All looked set for a big race at Cheltenham but the horse was very unsettled and gave Jack Kennedy a very difficult time in the paddock and on the way down to the start. He still ran a good race but was no match for Gavin Cromwell’s Final Orders who was victorious by two-and-a-half lengths.
Favori De Champdou has been set a mark for the Grand National seventeen pounds above his winning rating at Leopardstown but more of a worry could be if his behaviour before the race at Cheltenham were to happen again at Aintree. Obviously the intensity of the crowd etc is on a par with Cheltenham and if the eleven-year-old gelding were to act up before the National that would put a serious question mark against his chances in the big race.