King should rule

With no horse standing out on current form for today's Stakis Casinos Scottish Grand National, Belmont King can score a repeat success in the £65,000added feature contest.

Having been all but forgotten in the run-up to last year's marathon event, Belmont King sprang a 161 shock when scoring by a length and a half from Samlee.

Despite some below-par efforts this term, trainer Paul Nicholls has suggested that he thinks his charge is back to form and his very presence in the field means that a substantial proportion of his rivals must race from well out of the handicap.

With his greatest rivals either out of form, at the end of an arduous campaign, or surrounded by stamina doubts, a course and distance winner running off what is effectively a 3lb lower mark than his 1997 success looks interesting material for investment.

Fully recovered from an overreach which saw him miss a crack at the Martell Grand National a fortnight ago, success for Belmont King in this contest can provide more than satisfactory compensation.

Edelweis du Moulin ran a cracker when fourth in the Arkle Chase at Cheltenham behind Champleve. Having looked like going close turning for home, he found the pace a little too hot up the hill but still had some very good sorts behind him.

Gordon Richards would not be sending his charge here unless he felt him fully recovered from the trails and tribulations of the Cheltenham Festival and the six-year-old looks banker material in the 10th Edinburgh Woollen Mill Future Champion Novices' Chase.

With proven stamina on his side, the step up to two and a half miles looks well in order for this classy performer who has taken particularly well to fences.

Yet again a valuable hurdle event has cut up to a small but select field with only four runners going to post for the Samsung Electronics Scottish Champion Hurdle.

Such races are usually best avoided for punting purposes, but Kerawi, who took a similar event in Kempton's Christmas Hurdle back in December, is the selection.

As game as they come, Kerawi might just have a little too much toe for Blowing Wind if the race develops into a sprint.

Off a feather-weight of 7st 12lb, Ben Gunn gets a narrow vote in a typically trappy £25,000-added Ladbrokes Spring Cup at Newbury.