First Gold is napped

The build up to Saturday's Martell Grand National starts today, and while 650 million viewers worldwide won't tune into the Martell Cup or bet even close to the £80 million wagered on the National, who can deny the seven-runner field hasn't got the quality edge.

First Gold and See More Business had been dominating the ante-post market for the Cheltenham Gold Cup, have won the last three King George VI Chases between them and are respectively the top rated chasers in France and Britain.

This might not be the ultimate coronation that is the Gold Cup and victory will probably have connections wondering what might have been, but the Martell Cup is still a £120,000 pot and a worthy consolation.

Of course, £120,000 would only put a dent in what JP McManus paid for First Gold after the Francois Doumen-trained horse had blitzed Florida Pearl in December's King George, where See More Business was over 26 lengths behind.

See More Business has since won at Cheltenham, Paul Nicholls has been training his string for Aintree for over a month and rider Mick Fitzgerald has made it back to the saddle after a slight injury, so the veteran 1999 Gold Cup winner is right back in the equation.

With heavy rain forecast for the Liverpool area, the ground is likely to ride distinctly on the soft side. This will aid the chances of Frantic Tan and the porcelain-legged Legal Right, but while it will help those challengers, the same surely applies to First Gold.

His pre-festival Newbury defeat by Shotgun Willy was a shock, but he can hardly have been at a peak then and he now has the soft ground plus the level left-handed track he knows so well from winning France's top races at Auteuil.

There are no Irish-trained horses appearing today, but a number of Irish-based jockeys are travelling to Liverpool, including Ruby Walsh who rides today, as does the amateur Davy Russell who rides Tuska Ridge in the first race over the famous National fences, the Foxhunters Chase.

With 30 runners it's a hard race to pick a winner, but Bells Life won it last year and has other experience of the fences from a National run behind Bobbyjo in 1999.

There are a pair of Grade Two hurdles for novices, and Francois and Thierry Doumen can double up with Bilboa in the Glenlivet.