Grand National Festival 2025: Ben and Conlan's Day 1 Tips

My best bet of the day for the Opening Day of the Grand National Festival is Puturhandstogether in the Boodles Anniversary 4-Y-O Juvenile Hurdle. In the past week or so, the JP McManus horse, I feel, has been massively overlooked in the market, and with Lulamba taking a different route, the green and gold silks have shot into favouritism.

He comes into this race off of top weight, but there are only a few pounds in it, which I think bodes really well for the gelding, especially considering he's actually gone down in weight since his run at Cheltenham last month.

It is exactly that run why I am so confident in this horse. In the Fred Winter, he looked a real threat throughout, and won by six lengths, proving his quality despite being quite overlooked in that race. He definitely has the makings of a Grade 1 horse in my opinion, and I think he'll do well here.

My bet of the day for the first day of the Grand National Festival goes to Croke Park, who is set to be ridden by Sam Ewing for Gordon Elliott on the day in the 2m4f Grade 1 Novice Chase, the first race of the day.

Owned by Gigginstown House Stud, they chose to avoid going to Cheltenham in favour of the Grand National Festival, where he’ll be in a prime position to run fresh. Over this trip, the gelding beat Heart Wood by a neck to win his first Grade 1 Novice Chase.

This form has since been franked as Heart Wood ran a superb race and went on to finish a solid second behind Fact To File in the Grade 1 Ryanair Chase at the Cheltenham Festival. He didn’t quite have enough to win the battle against Ballyburn for the Ladbrokes Novice Chase at Leopardstown last time out, but he looks to be getting better and better with each run that he has, putting him in pole position to pick up his third Grade 1 Novice Chase victory.

Jango Baie is currently ahead of the betting, which, despite his emphatic comeback in the Arkle last time out, I think this run will be coming too soon for him.

I've gone for Primoz in the second-to-last race of the day, the Red Rum Handicap Chase. Which may come as a bit of a shock after his run at Cheltenham last month, but I think the gelding may have actually profited from this, especially considering the performance was not largely his fault, but rather caused by a poor start - a theme of the festival, unfortunately.

It is not worth taking too much from the Grand Annual, I feel, as it was quite harsh on what I believe to be a really decent horse in the making, especially with him looking more comfortable over this trip in recent times.

However, because of that result, he now comes into this race with a low weight of 10-6, which is 1-7 less than the favourite My Mate Mozzie, and I think this bodes really well for him, especially on good ground.

If you happened to keep up with my tips for the Cheltenham Festival, my Next Best bet for Day 1 may come as a bit of a shock, as I have decided to go for the incredibly talented mare Lossiemouth in the Aintree Hurdle.

The main shock factor of this selection comes because of the opposition she finds herself coming up against, this being the magnificent Constitution Hill. I didn’t have enough superlatives to describe this horse in my previous pieces, but his run in the Champion Hurdle sparked a rather sizeable cause for concern; has he begun to disrespect hurdles? 

Particularly in his last two runs, both being at Cheltenham, he has shown that he tends to jump the flights a lot sooner than he needs to, which ultimately led to a slight mistake in the Unibet Hurdle in January, and his shocking fall in the Champion Hurdle at the Festival last month.

I would absolutely love to see Nicky Henderson go down the Altior route and send him Novice Chasing, but if he can smooth out the errors, then we will hopefully see him back to his best over hurdles at Aintree and then possibly Punchestown at the end of the month. 

However, this section isn’t supposed to be about Constitution Hill, but about the heroics of Lossiemouth in the Mares’ Hurdle last month and how I think she has a cracking chance of repeating herself this time around.

She jumped impeccably over the extended 2m4f trip and showed no sign of cracking throughout, and although it will be a much tougher ask this time around, the Constitution Hill question marks are there to be taken advantage of, and I think she could do just that.

My final pick of the day is Benny's King, running in the Randox Foxhunters' Open Hunters' Chase in race number five of the day. The betting for this race is quite open, and with a big field, I'm not really taking much fancy in the favourites, and think there is a price to capitalise on with Benny's King.

Trained by Dan Skelton, the gelding is coming into this race off the back of some interesting form, with his last two runs both coming over bigger distances; however, a return to 2m5f looks really nice to me, especially considering his last run over this distance came in this race last year, where he finished second behind Its On the Line.

At 18/1, I definitely think he represents some nice E/W value, with some bookmakers offering as many as five places on this race.

My longshot of the day for Day 1 of the Grand National Festival is the Patrick Neville trained The Real Whacker, who is running in the Grade 1 Bowl Chase over 3m1f.

The weather in Aintree is forecast to be moderately warm and dry over the course of this week, with the going currently described as Good. In terms of the betting, there are at least seven horses ahead of him who would prefer a bit of cut in the ground on the day, and he is a Grade 1 winning stayer who seems to love these conditions.

I think a couple of these will drop out before the final declarations are made, and with Bria Hughes officially on board, I think The Real Whacker has an excellent chance of returning to Grade 1 glory at a nice price.