Horse Racing Betting Tips Today

Will Smith Tips

The Kalooki Kid

1.45 Aintree

* EW 3 places 1/5

25/1

The Kalooki Kid

1.45 Aintree

* Win 'without Impaire Et Passe & Jango Baie'

11/1

Take No Chances

3.30 Aintree

* Win 'without 'Constitution Hill & Lossiemouth'

7/1

Lucky 15

View Tips

10/3

Escaria Ten

Topham Handicap Chase - 4.05 Aintree - Fri 4 Apr

Ante-Post

View Tips

100/1

Imperial Saint

William Hill Handicap Chase - 2.30 Aintree - Sat 5 Apr

Ante-Post

View Tips

12/1

Monbeg Genius

2025 Grand National

Ante-Post

View Tips

40/1

Iroko

2025 Grand National

Ante-Post

View Tips

8/1

Djelo

King George VI Chase - Kempton Park - 26 Dec 2025

Ante-Post

View Tips

33/1

Much more intrigue than betting interest is the order of Day 1 of Aintree’s Grand National Festival, and most races are extremely competitive, but perhaps have more questions than answers.

Opening the meeting is the EBC Group Manifesto Novices’ Chase at 1.45 at Aintree, and the first of four Grade 1’s in a row, whereby the market has four horses between 9/4 and 11/2 and the rest seemingly unfancied.

Jango Baie is a horse I have a huge amount of time for and won the Arkle by staying strongly and picking up pieces late on in a race where his quality kept him in it. However, just a week or so after that, Nicky Henderson suggested that he was the one horse who hadn’t come out of Cheltenham that well, and yet here we are less than 3 weeks after that run, expecting another peak performance.

Impaire Et Passe is high-class on his day, but I wouldn’t be sure that he will reach quite the same height over fences as he did over hurdles, as his jumping looks a little forced to me. Croke Park is a solid option, but I can’t help but shake the notion that Gordon Elliott’s horses are more generally autumn improvers, as opposed to spring bloomers. While Gidleigh Park, again, is very good on his day but has more off days than is ideal and has well documented health issues.

So, of those at bigger prices, The Kalooki Kid makes a good bit of appeal to me at 25/1 each-way generally as a small 1-star * Daily Value play, as despite a large dollop of improvement having been forthcoming in his three chase starts, there’s still no knowing where that improvement will stop.

Priced up as he is, due to his official rating being some 20+lbs inferior to Impaire Et Passe and Jango Baie, if you watch how easily he won at Musselburgh last time, you could easily convince yourself that the ease with which he jumps and travels will carry him a long way in a good race like this.

Nicky Richards is already talking of marquee handicaps next season, but how many times does he run a horse in a Grade 1 without a squeak? Not many is the answer, and if he really was that keen on exploring the handicap route further, he could have gone to the valuable 2m4f handicap chase at Ayr’s Scottish Grand National meeting next weekend.

If Jango Baie and Impaire Et Passe put it all together, then it might be worth also adding a small 1-star * bet on The Kalooki Kid ‘without Jango Baie and Impaire Et Passe’ at 11/1 with William Hill, as he is simply too big in that market in comparison to the rest of the field.

A similar type of play will be the other 1-star * bet of Day 1 in the William Hill Aintree Hurdle at 3.30 at Aintree, as I’ve no inclination to try and figure out who will come out on top between the big two, but instead am very keen to side with Take No Chances at 7/1 ‘without Constitution Hill and Lossiemouth.’

Wodhooh is a winning machine, and you can’t crab that, but she is in much deeper than she has ever been here and will be in the teeth of a race with Constitution Hill and Lossiemouth much earlier than she has ever been used to against that quality of horse. Whereas Take No Chances is used to this level, and will be ridden to finish 3^rd you’d imagine, with anything else a bonus.

It could be this tactical element that sees Take No Chances running on late to secure that position, and on form and figures I am yet to see anything that suggests Wodhooh is even a tiny bit better than Take No Chances, and yet the pair are 2/11 and 7/1 respectively in that ‘without’ market.

David Young Tips

Jango Baie

1.45 Aintree

Win

11/4

Ahoy Senor

2.55 Aintree

EW (3 Places 1/5)

6/1

Lossiemouth

3.30 Aintree

Win

6/4

Folkes Tiara

4.40 Aintree

Win

6/1

Petit Tonnerre

4.40 Aintree

Win

15/2

Charisma Cat

5.15 Aintree

EW (4 Places 1/5)

5/1

1:45 Aintree – Manifesto Novices’ Chase (Grade 1) – 2m4f

I think there’s a chance that JANGO BAIE benefitting from Majborough’s mistake in Cheltenham has tainted what he was already set to achieve in the Arkle and that leads to me to believe he’s more than a fair price in this.

While they’re subjective, on Official Ratings JANGO BAIE is the best horse in the race and his nearest rival on figures has not lived up to the rating over fences that he achieved as a hurdler. I have immense respect for Impaire Et Passe, but the first time Cheek-Pieces are not really the sign you want to see for a horse who jumped OK on his first two starts but they’re reached for after one bad display. He does have a great record under Paul Townend and he appears to come good in the spring. This also looks like an obvious target for him given there was no 2 and a half mile option in Cheltenham, but it still remains to be seen if he can live up to his ability in this sphere while every one of JANGO BAIE’S chase runs to date have been half a stone clear of him.

6-year-olds have taken 7 of the last 10 renewals of this race and it’s often a fancied runner rather than a surprise winner, so with this trip much more suitable than his latest task, JANGO BAIE at the prices looks the right bet to be having at a track that suits both horses mentioned but possibly could be the perfect track for JANGO BAIE which means there could be more to come.

JANGO BAIE – 2 STAR WIN @ 11/4

2:55 Aintree – Bowl Chase (Grade 1) – 3m1f

There’s no denying this is a competitive race but AHOY SENOR has run at 4 Aintree Festivals and won twice and finished second twice, only beaten by Shishkin when he may have gone for home too soon, and Gerri Colombe by half a length. Not always a horse you can rely on but in here he seems to be the most solid option. Feels like an Oxymoron with a horse like AHOY SENOR but on paper he’s achieved performances that this field can only dream of at this trip.

His Old Roan run was eye-catching and for all that people said it was a bit suspicious, he was running off 169 in a Handicap over 2m 4 furlongs and he was thought to be the best horse in that race despite not winning. His last 4 runs here have been with RPR’s of 168, 170, 170 and 169 and they say how important better ground is to him, as is the spring. Those RPR’s are the best on offer at this trip and while it is a deep enough race, there’s question marks around most of the field and with three places up for grabs he feels the right play on these terms.

AHOY SENOR – 1 STAR EW @ 6/1 (3 Places 1/5)

3:30 Aintree – Aintree Hurdle (Grade 1) – 2m4f

Everything is price related in betting and if the market was the other way round for the front two in the betting it probably would result in different advice. However it’s not, and with LOSSIEMOUTH racing at her optimum trip following a strong travelling and effortless victory in Cheltenham she looks the one to be on side with. She beat Teahupoo over about this trip at the start of the season and many of Willie’s horses were cited to be needing their first run. Yes she was bettered by Constitution Hill at Kempton, but this isn’t Kempton and this isn’t over 2 miles.

Constitution Hill took this race two seasons ago when there was talk about him being a Gold Cup horse for the future but he didn’t look to be strong at the line in that race when Nico asked him for a little more in the finish and at the time I thought he looked vulnerable over further than 2 miles going forward. He also jumped as well as you could ask for a top hurdler by clipping the tip bar with his front feet in that race, but now he seems to hit the same part of the hurdle with his back feet. I’m sure he’ll have been schooled well enough to respect these hurdles again, but while LOSSIEMOUTH herself fell two starts ago, I just think she’s been a better jumper throughout this season than Constitution Hill has. No doubt he’s still got the engine inside him to put up a performance that she can’t better, but equally he’s not shown that for some time and he may not at this trip.

LOSSIEMOUTH – 1 STAR WIN @ 6/4

4:40 Aintree – Red Rum Handicap Chase (Premier Handicap) – 2m

This is a nice race but there aren’t many winners who came from Cheltenham, in fact just 1 from the last 10 and over 50 horses had tried. I think the right profile for this race has been 140 or lower rated horse, carrying 11 stone or less, aged 7-9 and priced 12/1 or shorter. You could even make a profit blind backing all the 4^th, 5^th and 6^th in the betting blind in the last 10 running’s.

I think the right call in this race is to side with two runners for not entirely the same reasons. Both FOLKES TIARA and PETIT TONNERRE tick those boxes but the former is running here for a trainer with 2 wins in this event since 2019 and for all that his wins haven’t come at this time of year, he looks to have been held onto by design. The latter doesn’t win very often and under Jonjo O’Neill Jr he has just 1 win from 18 starts. But, he won on his penultimate start in good style with the Cheek-Pieces back on, then was brought down when well fancied at the same track early last month. His mark of 130 would require a career best effort, but earlier this season he bumped into Imperial Saint over course and distance giving him 1lb and that rival is now rated 20lbs higher. He was eye-catching in that defeat and I think he’s been trained with this race in mind.

FOLKES TIARA – 0.5 STAR WIN @ 6/1

PETIT TONNERRE – 0.5 STAR WIN @ 15/2

5:15 Aintree – Nickel Coin Mares’ Bumper (Grade 2) – 2m1f

CHARISMA CAT was a winner for this column on her last start and I really like this mare. She’s had lots of racing which means other can be improving at a higher rate, but I think she’s improving with each run, and she looks the type who might even be holding a bit back for herself.

She’s the type of horse who will be suited to the long straight here although she could pick these up on the line or potentially be the sitting duck inside the last half furlong for another finisher if she got there too soon. I’d be certain she reverses the Market Rasen form with Kingston Queen having suffered an unclear path from the turn in which is a race that has found recent winners of this event, and Alan King took this race with The Glancing Queen in 2019 and back in 2014 with Avispa too.

I have serious respect for Seo Linn who has had her last win in Cheltenham boosted a number of times. She’s been saved for this race but since the race was formed no winner has come from a layoff over 110 days and 33 runners have tried to do what she’s trying and none were able to. I think playing CHARISMA CAT would feel a better option than choosing to take cover and I’m expecting a big effort.

CHARISMA CAT – 1.5 STAR EW @ 5/1 (4 Places 1/5)