Aintree Festival Tips: Rhys Williams is taking a two-pronged antepost attack in the Foxhunters

• String of good performances this season

• This looks an ideal test for him

• My Drogo is overpriced in the Foxhunters

• We are now NRNB on the 2025 Grand National

Aintree Foxhunters - Back My Drogo

My Drogo won the Mersey Novices' Hurdle at this meeting four years ago and I'm hopeful that he can have more success this year in the Foxhunters.

He raced too keenly and got into a battle with Givega a long way out on his return from a 308-day absence at Larkhill in December. He built on that with a comfortable victory against a weaker field next time and I thought he did well to win at Haydock last time given the pace of the race. The pace steadying through the middle part of the race didn't help his cause and left Gracchus De Balme in the ideal position so My Drogo did well to pick him up in the closing stages.

The Foxhunters is likely to be run at a much stronger tempo, which I think will ideally suit My Drogo given his keen going tendency, and I expect he will be ridden a bit handier than ended up being the case at Haydock. He's gradually been improving through the season and he looks to have a strong chance of gaining a second victory at this meeting. Any 11/26.50 or bigger appeals.

Aintree Foxhunters - Back Joker De Mai

At a bigger price, Joker De Mai is also of interest as he looks to go one place better for David Maxwell than Cat Tiger did in the 2022 renewal.

He ran to a good level over fences in France as a four-year-old and, after being bought by Maxwell, put together a string of good runs over hurdles last season.

It seemed that this race was always the plan for him and he was switched to hunter chases this season. He looked clearly in need of the run when finishing third at Taunton when he travelled strongly before finding little in the closing stages. At Leicester on his latest start, he bolted up in a fairly weak race over two miles.

The jumping of obstacles around Auteuil as a four-year-old gives hope that he shouldn't have any issues with the different fences in this race and I think he could be the ideal type for this race given that he has the speed for shorter and is a strong traveller over this trip. Any 12/113.00 or bigger appeals.

Now read Katie Midwinter's antepost selections for the Grand National