Last Saturday saw a large number of Grand National entrants having one of their last runs before the big race in April.

Tear up your Ante-Post tickets?

However, anyone holding an ante -post voucher for most of the horses sighted at the weekend must be wishing they could have a refund as the displays of horses to the front of the betting such as the likes of Point Barrow, Bewleys Berry, Butler’s Cabin and Preacher Boy were disappointing to say the least.

I realise for some of these horses its all about Aintree and everything else is irrelevant but can we really accept poor performances and still feel positive about our long range selections?

More negatives than positives at Haydock

Point Barrow and Bewleys Berry ran in the Red Square Vodka Gold Cup at Haydock, a race that was littered with possible runners in the big race at Aintree. Of those likely to run perhaps only D’Argent has run an encouraging race with the other entrants either not endorsing their claims (Captain Corelli, Irish Raptor) or running so badly that this must be seen as a negative (Idle Talk, Point Barrow and Bewleys Berry).

Point Barrow and Bewleys Berry were, in my opinion, particularly disappointing. Point Barrow has been given a tender start to the season in an attempt to reduce his handicap mark and he appeared to make suggestions of returning to his best form when finishing fourth at Gowran Park in January. With the handicap mark secured it seems odd to come over to England for a big race if the idea is just for a blow out and he appeared to be travelling well for much of the race only to run out of steam in the last third of the race. This must be a big worry for his Aintree supporters.

Bewleys Berry was only having his second run of the season and has run poorly at Haydock before so perhaps his supporters can take some heart from that, especially as he went on to run well in the National after a poor run in this race last year. Nevertheless, I don’t like to see horses running THAT badly before a big race and I would have to think very carefully before parting with any cash on these (or any of the other poor performers) prior to the National.

Butler’s Cabin still to hit form

One other horse’s performance struck me as noteworthy over the weekend – Butler’s Cabin just doesn’t appear to be the same horse as last year at the moment. I realise the track may not have suited him at Wincanton but he was being pushed and shoved from a very long way out and I just wonder if he has lost some of his enthusiasm. He may just need a bit of sun on his back to find his form but I couldn’t touch him for the National in his current form.

Current Form – What is your view?

It made me consider the relevance of current form with a view to winning the National? How important is it to you that your selection has some good recent form prior to running in the big race? Or do you prefer a softly, softly approach knowing that the form is being saved for the big day?

I’ll be looking at how the last 10 winner’s recent form affected their chances and what sort of break they had before their win at Aintree to see if we can glean any info from this viewpoint next week but in the meantime let me know how you feel about current form and how much it affects your selections for the Grand National.