Irish Grand National

[Ken4155]

Fairyhouse hosts the Irish Grand National today at 5pm and, as per usual, i have gone through the stats with a fine tooth comb. The stats range from 10/10 down to 6/10 (i.e. 10/10 winners had participated in between 4 - 12 chases, 9/10 had run in past 50 days, etc,) and i have taken the 12 most salient stats as my guideline with a '3 strikes and you're out' attitude. Remarkably, one horse scores a full house with 12/12 and that, unfortunately, is the current favourite Bonny Kate. I say unfortunately because favourites do not have a good record in this race; Shutthefrontdoor @ 8/1 fav won in 2014 for Sir AP McCoy, but you have to go back as far as 1999 for the previous successful fav. Still, i just cannot get away from those stats, so Bonny Kate is my main fancy and hopefully money will come in for one or two others, demoting Kate from her position as market leader.
Big priced winners are not a rarity in this race of late and a 25/1 shot who takes my eye is Kilford, who ticks many of the trends boxes. This 10yo has been claimer ridden of late but Paul Townend rides today and he may just be able to coax a bit extra out of the horse. Could be a decent e.w. player.