Lewie Tilley Sports News

By Lewie Tilley

With seven races taking place at this year’s event, only Nico de Boinville’s and Nicky Henderson’s Impose Toi and Dan and Harry Skelton’s Hidden History took home the win as the favourites to do so.

The main story from a brilliant day of racing was the return of Colonel Harry, who would be ridden by Gavin Sheehan. The horse would go on to win the William Hill Grand Sefton Handicap Chase against the favourite, Jet Plane.

After jumping superbly in the early stages of the race, the six-to-one horse came home to beat out Cheshire trainers Oliver Greenall and Josh Guerriero’s Gaboriot (18/1), who had also upgraded his result from third last year to second.

The leader for most of the race was Dylan Cunha’s Mahons Glory, who, at 22/1, looked to cause a massive upset by leading the race for the majority. However, as the race came to a close, the pack swarmed after the last and Colonel Harry rode to victory.

The Jamie Snowden-trained eight-year-old horse recovered from a serious leg infection to feature at the famous racecourse in his first race after an absence of 311 days following a nasty fall at Cheltenham on New Year’s Day.

In other news, making his debut on the fences at Aintree, Ben Pauling’s Mambonumberfive (7/2) ran out a brilliant race win in the William Hill Half A Mill Handicap Chase, besting Highlands Legacy (4/1) by half-a-length.

The horse was always likely to make a better chaser under jockey Ben Jones; he made an impressive winning debut over the bigger obstacles. Having been ridden slightly off the pace for most of the race, he strode through to lead after the final two fences.

The four-year-old had previously raced at Aintree in juvenile races, including a win in the Grade Two Adonis Hurdle and a disappointing seventh place in the Grade One Juvenile Hurdle at last year’s Grand National Festival in April.

In the other races, Charlie Hammond’s Bubble Dubi came out as the biggest outsider win at 16/1 in the penultimate race before Merlin Allen (6/1) won the final chase, beating out the strong favourite Pureis Lad (2/1).

Jane Williams’ debutant horse was making its first ever run at three years old, and certainly made it count after effortlessly winning on the good to soft in the final junior race of the day.

Featured images by Lewie Tilley.