13th-Apr-2024

Strong Leader has been on my radar for this race since he stayed on strongly to finish a close-up third behind Noble Yeats in the Cleeve Hurdle at Cheltenham in January.  He is popular enough this morning, but his price is holding up well.

He did well at Cheltenham.  He made a fairly bad mistake at the second flight, and he was always playing catch-up after that.  He did well to get as close as he did. He ran in snatches a bit, but he has never been at his best at Cheltenham.

By contrast, he seems to love Aintree.  He won a novices’ hurdle there early last season, and he put up a career-best at this meeting last year when he finished second to Inthepocket in the Grade 1 Top Novices’ Hurdle.  He stays this trip well too.

Very soft ground would be a little bit of a worry, but that worry is incorporated into his price.  I can see old friend Buddy One running well too at a decent price, he goes well at Aintree too, but I just prefer Strong Leader.

STRONG LEADER WON (ADV 7/1, SP 8/1)