Aintree Grand National Festival Tips: Three horses to follow from the 2024 Cheltenham Festival

• Three horses to follow at Aintree that ran at the Cheltenham Festival

• Irish Point to land a second Aintree Grade 1

• Banbridge to be at his best on nicer ground

• Corach Rambler has big chance to land back-to-back Grand National's

• Rachael Blackmore Serial Winners Fund at £205K - Read more here

• Betfair NRMB on the 2024 Aintree Grand National

As Cheltenham Festival fever starts to die down, racing fans' attention turns to Aintree for next month's Grand National meeting.

With that in mind I have picked out three horses that ran at the Cheltenham Festival who rate a bet in their respective races at the 2024 Aintree Grand National meeting.

Irish Point can land Aintree Hurdle

Irish Point was a late switch to the Champion Hurdle at the 2024 Cheltenham Festival having been a shorter price for the Stayers Hurdle for most of the season to head..

With the withdrawal of Constitution Hill in the Tuesday feature, he took his chance in Tuesday's feature and it almost paid off. Irish Point ran a superb race to finish a close second to State Man.

There was talk of missing Cheltenham in favour of Aintree earlier in the campaign, but with a solid run at the Festival, it now looks as though he will take on both meetings and is a live player in Liverpool in April.

State Man wins the Champion Hurdle!

He has now won more Grade 1's (9) than Constitution Hill has had runs under rules (8).#CheltenhamFestival

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-- Betfair Racing (@BetfairRacing) March 12, 2024

A winner at the 2023 meeting last year when taking the Grade 1 Mersey Novices' Hurdle over 2m4f, it would not be a suprise to see him back at that trip again in the Grade 1 Aintree Hurdle, won by Constitution Hill last year.

He may have to take on Nicky Henderson's unbeaten superstar if the yard is back to form. However, having proved his worth at the top level this season on a few occasions, and showing he handles the Aintree track well, he is a live contender.

His run in the Champion Hurdle was faultless and was beaten by a better animal on the day in State Man, but the Robcour team will be hoping for more glory at Aintree in May and his Cheltenham run sets him up perfectly for a good crack at another Grade 1.

Melling Chase may see Banbridge at his best

While Irish Point impressed at Cheltenham, Banbridge ran a race too bad to be true last week and will have to bounce back in a big way. However, he did have his excuses.

The Joseph O'Brien team took a chance in running Banbridge on soft ground in the Ryanair, which goes completely against the chances of the chaser, who has shown on numerous occasions he needs good ground.

Skipping the Turners Novices' Chase in favour of Aintree last season proved the right decision as he went on to land the Grade 1 Manifesto Novices' Chase on the opening day.

2/1 Banbridge wins the opener at the Aintree #GrandNational meeting!

👏 Tipped up by @kevinblake2011 on Racing...Only Bettor.

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-- Betfair Racing (@BetfairRacing) April 13, 2023

The O'Brien team may be looking back on Cheltenham and thinking they should have done the same this term, but maybe not having an overly hard race will put him spot-on for back-to-back Aintree successes.

A winner of the Grade 2 Silviniaco Conti Chase at Kempton on debut this season, the form of that race has since been franked by Pic D'Orhy scoring in the Grade 1 Betfair Ascot Chase next time out.

He will likely take on that rival again at Aintree in the Grade 1 Melling Chase, won by O'Brien in two of the last three renwals with Fakir D'oudairies, and by Pic D'Orhy last year for Betfair ambassador Paul Nicholls.

The return to better ground is an obvious positive with how Aintree normally turns out for the Grand National meeting and it sets up a proper clash between Banbridge and Pic D'Orhy once again.

Corach Rambler set for Grand National repeat

Finally, one of the eyecatchers of the Cheltenham Festival was last year's Grand National winner Corach Rambler in the 2024 Gold Cup.

Held up out the back for most of the race, the Gold Cup pace looked too sharp for him early on. However, like he showed at Aintree last term, his staying ability came to the fore as he galloped all the way to the line to grab third.

Having won twice at the Cheltenham Festival in the Ultima Handicap Chase, showing on both runs in 2022 and 2023 that he does his best work at the finish, he did so again in the Gold Cup - at one point looking like challenging the winner Galopin Des Champs up the straight.

Galopin Des Champs retains his crown in the 100th edition of the Gold Cup!

£4.3million of the £6.4million traded on the race on @BetfairExchange was matched on the winner.

Never traded higher than 2.2 #CheltenhamFestival

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-- Betfair Racing (@BetfairRacing) March 15, 2024

Overall, he only went down by 13 lengths, finishing ahead of some talented staying chasers and it acted as a perfect prep run for a second tilt at the race that stops the nation on April 13.

The gelding is now the 5/16.00 favourite for the 2024 Grand National and has an obvious chance if able to shrug off the rise by the handicapper from 146 to 159. He heads into the race off the back of a solid prep run.

Now read Cheltenham Festival 2025 Tips: Three horses to back antepost from 7/1 to 33/1