Rubaud

He warmed up for it with a fine run in a listed hurdle at Carlisle two weeks ago, when he went down by just three parts of a length to last season’s County Hurdle winner Wilful.  And the move to Aintree is a positive on the face of it, he won the Grade 1 Maghull Chase over today’s course and distance in April.

However, he is fashionable and he is short, and he was probably flattered by that Maghull Chase win.  Sent off at 50/1, he sat well off the fast pace, as Salvator Mundi and Be Aware went at each other up front from early.  They went too fast, they set it up for a closer.  Kala Conti was making her ground from further back in the field, she was travelling at least as well as Mirabad when she came down at the third last fence.

Mirabad is up to a mark of 155 now, 17lb higher than he was going into the Maghull Chase, and that is significant.  He may well win, but he has to prove that he is up to that mark, and he is very short.

Rubaud was giving him 6lb in that listed hurdle at Carlisle and, while he finished four lengths behind Mirabad there, he is getting 11lb from him today.  He is 17lb better for a four-length beating.

Of course, this is different, we’re over fences now, not over hurdles, and Rubaud hasn’t run over fences since May 2025.  But Paul Nicholls’ horse is at least as good over fences as he is over hurdles.  He won the Grade 2 Pendil Chase at Kempton in February that year, and he ran well for a long way in the Grade 1 Manfesto Chase, his only run over fences at Aintree.  He was right there with them at the third last fence, before his stamina appeared to ebb over the longer trip.

He should be happier back over two miles today, and there is a chance that, with no other obvious pace-setter in the race, he could get an easy time of it in front.  Aintree’s chase track is a good track for front-runners and prominent racers, and, in a race that Paul Nicholls has won three times in the last nine years, Rubaud could out-run his odds by a fair way.

RUBAUD WON (ADV 5/1, SP 4/1