Paul Nicholls' Week Ahead: The Timeform Preview

With little over a week to go until the Aintree Grand National meeting gets under way, Paul Nicholls is warming up by sending a five-strong team to Taunton on Tuesday, all of whom have plenty to recommend them on a substandard card.

The day begins with Bold Addition, who lines up in the opening novice hurdle on the back of fairly useful effort when comfortably winning a similar race at Wincanton over two weeks ago. That performance quickly banished the memory of his headstrong display when only seventh on his penultimate start and, should those antics be a thing of the past, he will be very hard to beat here in what is a very weak race. Lucy's Perfect is the chief danger but she has plenty to find on form with Bold Addition.

An even weaker race follows, as Qozak faces just a single rival in the novice chase and even slight doubts over Qozak's stamina and durability aren't enough to see him being turned over by the out-of-form Hudibras, who unseated on his only chase start to date 11 days ago.

Whilst odds indicate that Nicholls could clean sweep the meeting's first five races, it isn't going to be straightforward as his Teshali faces four rivals with higher Timeform ratings in the six-runner handicap hurdle. However, he remains open to improvement, and with promising conditional James Cowley taking 10 lbs off his back, he has every chance of improving on last Friday's fourth placing.

Earth Planet carries the baton in the handicap chase and, although likely to start favourite, he faces two opponents in Cashel Blue and Cold Mountain with higher Timeform ratings, so is going to have to be at his best to win, for all that the last-named is unreliable. What's more, Earth Planet is still a maiden over fences and often finishes weakly.

The fifth and final leg features Shacklesborough, who has Ruby on board for the first time in the second handicap hurdle on the card. Shacklesborough disappointed on his second run over fences last time and is consequently being brough back to the smaller obstacles; however, he didn't cut much ice when originally tried over them so it's difficult to see why he should do any better five months on. He also faces tough competition in the shape of Orion Express and Jewellery.

What's otherwise a quiet week for the yard culminates on Friday with four runners engaged at Stratford.

Vertige Dore is entered in the opening novice hurdle and will be looking to restore his reputation somewhat after a below-form fourth when last seen at Doncaster. That said, his debut win at Bangor in August suggested he's up to winning a race of this nature and he comes out favourably on Tiemform ratings.

Rivaliste looks set to switch back to hurdles for the first time since his debut in France after having jumping problems over fences last time and it's difficult to know he will fare. Therefore, the promising pair of Karinga Bay and Themilanhorse could provide the yard with a greater chance of another winner in the concluding bumper.

Timeform / 29 Mar 2011