The biggest race day of the year in Wales, the £150,000 Welsh Grand National is scheduled to take place the day after Boxing Day – and the feature event of Christmas, the King George VI Chase, each year.
This prestigious horse racing betting event, often characterized by its challenging conditions, has a wonderful alumni of famous names gracing its trophy down the years.
Corbiere 1982, Burrough Hill Lad 1983, Earth Summit 1997 and Native River 2016 are just a few of the greats to have won the race.
So which horses are in with a good shout on December 27th this year then?
Welsh Grand National Contenders
Mr Vango is now the ante-post favourite with us here at William Hill following his victory in the London National at Sandown.
Trainer Sara Bradstock confirmed the Chepstow marathon has always been in her sights for the eight-year-old. She also said that Mr Vango would have cheekpieces back on at Chepstow. He wore them at Cheltenham (when third in last season’s National Hunt Chase) and he ran well in them, so that is the plan once again.
She did warn however that he wouldn’t run if the ground wasn’t at least soft, but if it does become testing, he must hold a really great chance.
Last year’s emphatic winner Nassalam is well fancied again despite being pulled up on his first two runs of this season.
The seven-year-old trained by Gary & Josh Moore slammed his rivals to win by an astonishing 34 lengths last year and attempts to become the first back-to-back winner of the Welsh National since Bonanza Boy in 1989.
His form of late is very worrying so it’s pretty difficult to make him an automatic pick on your punting shortlist.
The Jonjo O’Neill-trained Monbeg Genius was the 5-1 favourite for the race last year before he developed a small abscess days before the race and had to be withdrawn.
Second to Fontaine Collonges in a competitive 3m1½f handicap chase on November 23rd at Haydock Park, he should come on for that run and Jonjo also believes that the Shantou-gelding can be an Aintree Grand National contender too.
More often than not Haydock form holds up to scrutiny so Monbeg Genius is a solid looking selection should you wish to side with him.
Ante-post players should take caution over the Nigel Twiston-Davies-trained Broadway Boy, with connections anticipating that the race may come too soon for the Coral Gold Cup second.
If he was to take his place he’d be bang there in contention, with a similar looking profile to his stable predecessor Earth Summit.
Those of you looking for an each-way flutter at slightly longer odds may want to cast your eye over the aforementioned Fontaine Collonges trained by Venetia Williams.
There is no way the former Roland Meyrick winner should be almost twice the price of Monbeg Genius who she beat at Haydock, and Williams is also saddling no end of big race winners.
Steve Mullington’s antepost betting tip: Fontaine Collonges (20/1, E/W)
