NEWS ROUND-UP: A SPIN over the famous Aintree fences looks the favourite option for the four-time Grade One winner Hi Cloy at Liverpool next week but it is the Topham Trophy rather than the Grand National itself that trainer Michael Hourigan appears to be targeting.
Hi Cloy is one of the topweights in the National and also holds an entry in the Melling Chase over two and a half miles on the Mildmay track that he memorably won two years ago.
That race now looks like being the next stop for the brilliant Queen Mother Champion Chase winner Master Minded but whatever the opposition Hourigan will travel to Liverpool in upbeat form after an encouraging run by Hi Cloy over hurdles at Fairyhouse on Easter Monday when he finished runner-up to Shakervilz.
"I firmly believe he would have won that race too except he got in under the second last and lost a lot of momentum," the Co Limerick -based trainer said yesterday.
"He will certainly run at Liverpool. He's in the Melling and National but I suppose the most likely race is the Topham. Two miles and six would look to suit him."
Hi Cloy will be part of a typically strong Irish team at Aintree which was boosted yesterday with the news that the star novice Captain Cee Bee, winner of the Supreme at Cheltenham, will take part in next Friday's John Smith's Top Novices' Hurdle.
Trainer Eddie Harty reported: "He came out of the race very well and he didn't like the ground that day, it has to be said. Only really when he met the rising ground coming to the last did he start to enjoy himself. He battled well up the hill which is where he was getting his ground so it was pleasing to see that.
"I always knew he was good but I've since looked back at the previous 20 winners and no horse won with such a gap between races - it's a good job I didn't look beforehand!"
Harty's wish for decent ground at Liverpool looks like coming through as the going there is currently "good" although the weather forecast is uncertain.
"I know from my youth that it is a track which dries out well," said Harty who also expects Tony McCoy to ride after deserting Captain Cee Bee in favour of the eventual runner-up, Binocular, at Cheltenham. "It was a toss-up then and I think the rain the night before was the catalyst in him choosing Binocular," added Harty.
A real Liverpool specialist returning to his favourite track will be Al Eile. He was a previous winner in 2005 and 2007 of the Scottish & Newcastle Enterprises Aintree Hurdle and is on target for a possible treble in the race.
"He had a nice run on the flat in Harchibald's race at Dundalk a month ago and has been ticking over since," said his trainer John Queally. "The ground is normally okay there. At Aintree in the spring it is never too deep."
Queally also intends to run last year's third, Where Now, in Thursday's Foxhunters where the champion amateur Nina Carberry will again take the mount.
The Tommy Stack team have been showing up well in the early skirmishes of this flat season and they could make an impact on tonight's Dundalk card with Munsters Call an interesting starter in the second six-furlong handicap.
This five-year-old hasn't run in almost a year but is dropped almost half a stone on ratings from his highest mark to date and he showed enough at Cork on his last start to suggest a race like this is within his grasp.
Stack's representative in the Auction Maiden, Golden Tokyo, should improve from a track run earlier in the month but Cochlear could have to give best to another track winner Zaharath Al Bustan in the mile handicap.
