Tea not quite brewed ....... gets collared by the Dude !

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Well after a slight delay, we saw a great Welsh National. That's the last big National till Aintree. We do however, have the likes of the Peter Marsh, Haydock trial, Racing Post, Grimthorpe and of course a few races at Cheltenham to look forward to.

Looking back first though, what did we learn this weekend?

The fight to the line

A thrilling end to the Welsh National saw Monbeg Dude triumphant under a patient, cool ride from Paul Carberry. Defintely one of the rides of the year  .... and it's only the first week in January. What did surprise me was a) the number of finishers at 9 (we predicted 6-8) and b) the way the 2 at the front finished, given the state of the ground.  Monbeg Dude is now being primed for the Haydock National trial, with Michael Scudamore confirming they are in no rush to get to Aintree this year, it's just one step at a time.  Teaforthree ran with huge credit in second and our main pick for the National proper, travelled and jumped well and was given every chance by AP. We watch with interest as to what the handicapper thinks of that run. AHEM ...we'd just like to say we predicted the first 2 home in Friday's preview .... just in the wrong order! We also gave Arbor Supreme as an e/w and he ran with great credit and seems to be coming back to some form. It would be good to see him run in something like the Cross-country at Cheltenham. In 3rd place was Triggerman, who ran fantastically till fading, on ground he'd never before encountered. One to watch next time out. Behind those, Our Island ran quite well and the rest were somewhat strung out. Our friend's horse, Across The Bay, ran as well as can be expected, with Jason trying to get him into it a mile from home before the burden of top-weight told.

Over at Sandown, Katenko won their big chase and is one to keep on-side. Venetia is having a fantastic run of winners and @AidanColeman is doing a great job of booting them home, with them having a double at Taunton yesterday. Great jockey. At only 7, the powder may be kept dry as far as Aintree is concerned for now. The big disappointment was Alfie Spinner, who bypassed Chepstow to come here and with the money also behind him, was a flop. Let's hope he can bounce back. Hey Big Spender seems to be running to get his mark mark down after a great season last year and must be watched closely, with the wily Tizzard's looking after him. Gullible Gordon was a complete let-down after a promising Becher run.

Finally, a mention must be made of one of our old favourites going in at Wincanton. Big Fella Thanks finally got his head in front again after almost 3 years without a win. Saying that, it was predictable now that he has left Ferdy's yard, although he did have his career-high rating whilst there. We would love to see him have another crack at the big one this year and hopefully Phil Smith will give him a break now he's eleven. The immediate response from @CathrynFry (worth a follow) on Twitter was that he would win the Topham doing handstands! A view confirmed pretty quickly by the trainer who said :

"At this stage I'd be more inclined to run him in the Topham instead because even when he ran in the Becher earlier this season he looked all over the winner at the elbow but didn't get home. The way he jumps round there you'd have to think he'd take a lot of beating in the Topham but we'll have a sit down with the owners and discuss"

Agreed, he would go very well in that race but Tom George could send an 'Armada' to the race (Nacarat, Tartak, BFT) and for me Tartak would be the obvious choice given he has jumped the fences in last year's Topham, is now slipping down the ratings, is best around the distance and has completed every race he has taken part in. Let's hope he does send them all just for interest .... what price an '@TomGeorgeRacingTricast' ?

The picture is building and there are now only 3 months til Aintree ..... Bring it on !!

We'll be back on friday with a look at this weekend's key #GN2013 action, including a preview of the Classic Chase from Warwick.

PS. we are steadily creeping towards our first milestone of 500 followers and still have 2 free bets up for grabs as mentioned in our Grand National Part 2 blog - keep retweeting and following please,

thanks,

@Aintreeinfo