"Quality will out" is a watchword for racing at Aintree nowadays, where the era of long-priced unfancied horses has largely been put to bed by changes to race conditions and the shape of the fences. And perhaps the racing over the National fences is better for that.  That quality was proven yesterday when 3/1 favourite It's On The Line, trained by Emmet Mullins, and ridden by Derek O'Connor,...

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Time Leader and Spyglass offer the best chance of continued home-grown success on the Randox Foxhunter Chase, the second of the three "classics" of the amateur season tomorrow at Aintree.  Twenty-two runners line up for the thrill of a lifetime - a circuit of Aintree's Grand National fences, but rarely nowadays, the ground will be soft or heavy, which always throws up some imponderables. Ti...

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Can you name me a trainer who has improved his strike rate nearly threefold this season? I thought not.  Robbie Llewellyn is proving that the small man can make training work, notching his 22nd winner of the season this afternoon at Hereford with Ask Me Another in the National Hunt Novices Hurdle. Llewellyn is a product of the South Wales School of Training Excellence, but has now set up sho...

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The misery continues for fixture secretaries in the Three Counties, following the opening of the heavens again. Fixtures at Maisemore on April 13 - already rescheduled from te end of March - and Woodford for the Berkeley Races, have been cancelled and will not be rescheduled.  A season to forget between the flags. Perhaps Latenightpass and Sine Nomine can shed some sunlight on the Point-to-P...

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