15th-Apr-2023

Sire Du Berlais should be shorter than he is for the Liverpool Hurdle in my book.

True, he is 11 now, but Deanos Beeno won this race as an 11-year-old in 2003, and Sire Du Berlais is an extraordinary 11-year-old.  And he won this race last year as a 10-year-old.

Gordon Elliott’s horse won the Stayers’ Hurdle at Cheltenham too.  He was the first 11-year-old to win that race since Crimson Embers won it in 1986, and he did really well to win it.  He was short of room on the inside over the second last flight, he had to check his run, but he stayed on powerfully up the far side to win well in the end, leaving some of today’s rivals in his wake.

He obviously had a hard race at Cheltenham, but he is a battle-hardened warrior who obviously takes his racing really well, and he proved at Cheltenham that he retains all his ability and all his enthusiasm.  That performance was up there with the best of his life.

Significantly, he came on to Aintree last year after getting beaten in the Pertemps Final at Cheltenham, and he stayed on strongly to get the better of Flooring Porter in this race, with the pair of them clear of their rivals.  And he has had one extra week this year to recover from Chetleham.   There is every chance that he will run his race and, if he does, that should be good enough to at least take him close.

SIRE DU BERLAIS WON (ADV 11/2, SP 8/1)