THE three-day meeting at Aintree starts on Thursday and, as well as the centrepiece of the Randox Health Grand National on Saturday, the meeting features 11 Grade 1 races, four of them on the opening day.

The first of the four is the Manifesto Novices’ Chase where Warren Greatrex’s La Bague Au Roi sets the standard, the eight-year-old being unbeaten in four starts over fences.

The Harry Fry-trained Bags Groove set himself up for a trip to Aintree after he won the Grade 2 888Sport Pendil Novices’ Chase at Kempton in February, his fourth over fences and second at this level.

Potential rivals include the Philip Hobbs-trained JLT Novices’ Chase winner Defi Du Seuil, and Amy Murphy’s Kalashnikov. The last-named may step up to the two and a half miles at Aintree after the disappointment of the Arkle Trophy at Cheltenham. Kalashnikov was badly hampered there at the sixth fence, unseating Jack Quinlan, and his trainer reported during the week: “He was very plainly sore in his mouth for a couple of days afterwards, because the reins had come out over his head. He had broken the bit in his mouth. Other than that, he’s absolutely fine.’’

Mick Channon’s charge Glen Forsa is another aiming to bounce back from his early exit in the Arkle Trophy at Cheltenham last week.

Gordon Elliott’s Mengli Khan and Joseph O’Brien’s Us And Them, bidding to go one better than a sequence of four second placings, are others in the mix.

EXCITING

Justin Carthy’s exciting juvenile hurdler Band Of Outlaws, an impressive winner of the Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle at Cheltenham, steps up to Grade 1 level at Aintree for a potential clash with Triumph Hurdle winner Pentland Hills in the Doom Bar Anniversary 4-Y-O Juvenile Hurdle. Pentland Hills stormed up the Cheltenham hill to give Nicky Henderson a seventh win in the race.