Aintree Festival 2025: Tanya Stevenson's Selections For Thursday
Tanya Stevenson joins us once again to preview the very best racing action this week at the Aintree Festival.
Tanya has studied the form for Thursday's opening day of racing at Aintree, and has made two selections which can be backed with betting sites.
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Check out Dean Ryan and Diarmuid Nolan's video on the first day of the Aintree Festival, with Lossiemouth and Constitution Hill going head-to-head in the Aintree Hurdle.
Tanya Stevenson's Selections For Day 1 (Thursday) At Aintree
Tanya Stevenson Panel Tip 1: My Drogo - Foxhunters' Open Hunters' Chase (16:05)
Remember My Drogo from four years ago, when he won at Aintree and had the jump world at his hooves?
He won the Grade 1 Mersey Novice Hurdle, building up plenty of anticipation for what he would do the following season.
Seven months later and a seasonal reappearance making a debut over fences at Cheltenham was a huge deflation.
Fate popped the balloon and in a two-horse race, My Drogo sprawled on landing two out and that was it.
In fairness, he returned to the Cotswolds in December to right those wrongs to win, but had the damage been done mentally by his debut? It’s hard to ever know or explain.
He was off the track for a considerable time only to return in the October 2023 in the Old Roan Chase at Aintree.
It's good that he likes the Liverpool air as he’ll need to on Thursday. I have lots of faith in him.
Scrub the next hurdle race he ran in at Exeter, where he pulled up on heavy ground. What was that? Anyway, it's been deleted from the memory and I’m looking forward.
Since November 2021, he has only had four chase races under rules. Yes, just four. Is there hope for improvement? Please.
He looked so rotund and green at Haydock last time out, yet on watching umpteen replays, although he didn’t win by far, he was always holding the second.
What he did do well was jump quickly and economically under the tutelage of Will Biddick.
An amateur of superb repute, Biddick has already won the Foxhunters on one of its rivals - Famous Clermont. That day, they looked as though they joined in at the Melling Road.
My Drogo is not going to be like that. I'm guessing Biddick gave connections enough confidence that the Foxhunters would be a good fit, with regard to ground and distance, and the horse is the highest rated.
There is a requirement to travel at speed with agility in the front rank in the race and he has the scope for that.
Another sensible move was to duck away from Cheltenham runners (only nine of the last 23 had gone via the Festival).
There is always an element of luck in the race as well. Here’s hoping luck is on our side.
Tanya Stevenson Panel Tip 2: Tommy's Oscar - Red Rum Handicap Chase (16:40)
How about a win to pull at the heartstrings and raise the roof?
No, I don’t mean Constitutional Hill - sentiment in bucket loads, fairytale stuff.
There is a need to overcome a massive stat. Since 1994, there has only been two winners of the Red Rum Chase where the horse was older than nine.
But this is not the best race for favourites, with only five winning jollies since 2002. Luckily my pick should be a double-figure price on horse racing betting sites.
Many will go down the Primoz route, as he was backed off the boards at Cheltenham only to be floored by one of the farcical starts.
However, this is a different course and race. Sans Bruit has it all to do. Since 1977, only two horses have won the race twice: Little Bay in 1982 and 1984, and Kathies Lad in 1985 and 1986.
Tommy's Oscar is endeared himself to us all for his brave runs over hurdles which saw him take part in the 2022 Champion Hurdle.
Yet he has retained his ability and grown in stature over fences despite the handicapper never giving him a break. Despite all the gushing surrounding him, there is never enough credit given to his all-round ability.
He has won 12 of his 30 career races and placed on a further 10 occasions. He has run in five Grade 2s, a Grade 1 and two Grade 3s.
Last year he had a busy campaign running five times before winning a valuable handicap at Ayr on Scottish Grand National day, with Sans Bruit back in third.
This term, he has only had three races and he is back to the mark which saw him win at Ayr.
Could there be a little bit of Aintree magic? The Hamiltons are delightful and Tommy's Oscar offers up a bit of each-way value.
