Aintree Placepot tips: Paul Kealy's perm for the £150,000 guaranteed pool

Only seven go in Aintree's opening novice hurdle (12.25), but it will be a surprise if Josh The Boss doesn't fill one of the top two places and he looks banker material for Placepot purposes.

Flash In The Park is an interesting recruit given how much he cost at the Tingle Creek sale a year ago (£350k), but Josh The Boss was really impressive on his hurdling debut, and the horse who was beaten 41 lengths into third was only three and a half lengths behind Minella Double last time.

Giovinco is odds-on for the next (1.00), but I'm not a fan of backing horses who fell or unseated last time and Aintree is a stiff enough jumping track for him to be coming back to. 

All of his rivals have more experience and are getting chunks of weight, and my two against him are Lord Of Kerak and Universal Folly.

Remastered has been third and first in the Pertemps qualifier (1.35) first time out for the last two years so is first on the list, with the improving Imperial Merlin preferred over the Willie Mullins-trained Icare Allen (likely to be popular in the pool) as the back-up.

The following handicap chase (2.10) may be more competitive than the one Master Chewy won at the track on his chase debut, but he jumped superbly and looked miles ahead of his mark, so he appeals as banker material.

That gives us plenty of scope for three in the Grand Sefton (2.45), with Gesskille added to main selections Percussion and Half Shot.

With Millers Bank running in his first hurdle for two and a half years, West Balboa and Brewin'upastorm look the most likely pair to fight out the three-runner final leg (3.20).

Aintree Placepot perm

12.25
2 Josh The Boss

1.00
3 Universal Folly
5 Lord Of Kerak

1.35
3 Remastered
7 Imperial Merlin

2.10
1 Master Chewy

2.45
5 Gesskille
9 Percussion
11 Half Shot

3.20
1 Brewin'upastorm
3 West Balboa

1x2x2x1x3x2=24 lines

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