AINTREE FESTIVAL: A total of 11 Irish-trained horses are scheduled to run on the opening day of the Grand National meeting and Florida Pearl leads the raiding party in the feature Martell Cup.
He is one of six in the race, four of which ran in the Gold Cup at Cheltenham.
Florida Pearl, ridden for the first time by Barry Geraghty today, came out worst of the four in 11th while See More Business harked back to his prime with a gallant third to Best Mate.
The latter's stable mate Lord Noelie was one place ahead of Florida Pearl, with Cyfor Malta eighth, but the Irish star, winner of the King George this season, is on a retrieval mission.
"We discovered a lung infection after Cheltenham which was minor but obviously enough to put him off his game. That was two disappointing runs in a row for him," Willie Mullins said yesterday.
"He seems in good form now but we won't really know until he runs. We will probably adopt the same attacking tactics as we did at Kempton."
Aintree's flat and tight Mildmay track usually facilitates such tactics and as he proved at Christmas, a tip-top Florida Pearl ridden aggressively is hard to peg back.
Best Mate couldn't do it in the King George and without that Cheltenham hill, there will be plenty betting none of today's opposition will be able to either.
The main support race is the four-year-old hurdle where the Triumph runner-up, Newhall, bids to go one better. The Triumph was, indeed, a triumph for the Irish juvenile hurdlers with only one of the first six home coming from a British stable.
Newhall's jockey, Fran Flood, said yesterday: "She seems to have recovered very well and seems in good form. I was on to a fellah over there and he says the ground is no better than good and she has won on that. I see she is quoted as favourite and she looks to have a favourite's chance."
The other Irish horse is Find The King who won at Limerick on St Patrick's Day and who goes to Liverpool with the benefit of a less than busy campaign under his belt.
Find The King's stable companion Sheltering will appreciate a bit of decent ground in the 30-runner Foxhunters over the big fences.
The first three in the Cheltenham Foxhunters, a race Sheltering unseated Philip Fenton in, have another crack at each other. It was a tight finish on that occasion, and a hard race for the principals, and maybe on good ground Sheltering could go close.
