Looking ahead: three fancies for the Coral Scottish Grand National

A full field of 30 runners have been declared for the Coral Scottish Grand National at Ayr on Saturday, including the Paul Nicholls-trained Vicente, who could become the joint-winningmost horse in the race if successful for a third consecutive year. Find out who our experts fancy below . . .

4.05 Ayr, Saturday - Coral Scottish Grand National

Vintage Clouds
Dave Orton tipster

Vintage Clouds was unlucky not to have got a run in the big one last weekend and I would have had something on him if he’d made it. It’s no surprise he’s been popular to improve on his seventh in this race last year, when he lost confidence after smacking the first fence. The eight-year-old is a more complete jumper this season and the going won’t be much different to when he romped home at Aintree in October. Carrying 10st 12lb, there’s an awful lot to like.

Those looking for one at bigger odds could do a lot worse than side with Sam England’s Alzammaar. He’s been running well in novice company over mainly inadequate trips and is well treated on his best hurdle form.

Doing Fine
Lewis Porteousreporter

The weather seems to have turned in the nick of time for the Neil Mulholland-trained ten-year-old, whose season looks to have been geared around a big spring target like this. Anything more testing than good to soft has never suited Doing Fine and, despite the wet start to the year, the going at Ayr is already good to soft, with three dry and bright days to come.

The closer the ground creeps to good, all the better for Doing Fine, who was a six-length scorer on good ground at Cheltenham last April. The way he stayed on over 3m1f at Cheltenham in October and over 3m5f at Sandown in December suggests this even longer trip is exactly what he’s looking for and off a competitive weight of 10st 6lb, everything appears to be in place for a big run.

Fagan
Jack Haynes reporter

The Grand National-winning team of Gordon Elliott and Davy Russell appear to have solid claims of landing the Scottish equivalent with the talented and lightly raced Fagan.

A bumper winner at the course, Fagan caught the eye over hurdles on several occasions, most notably on the biggest stage of all when second to Unowhatimeanharry in the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle two years ago.

Gordon Elliott: runs Fagan in the Coral Scottish Grand NationalCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

He has not been seen since two promising runner-up efforts in novice chases in the autumn behind Ballyandy and Black Corton, which suggest his mark of 145 is workable, and this race has favoured novices in recent years with Vicente (2016) and Godsmejudge (2013) defying inexperience.

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