As Ginger McCain will tell you, ‘they put on a great show at Aintree’, and I’m itching to get stuck into what smacks of being a top quality meeting.

Looking towards Thursday’s card there’s a great fillip for one of the Betting Directory team as my bulldog of an editor buys all his clothes from Matalan, and the discount retailer have come to Aintree’s rescue by sponsoring the Grade 1 Anniversary 4-Y-O Novices’ Hurdle at 2.35pm, and it looks a top quality renewal for this valuable pot.

The key stat for this contest involves horses who contested the Triumph Hurdle, and I’m expecting this to be fought out by the horse who carried my cash in March, Walkon (second to Zaynar in this year’s renewal) and Starluck, who was six lengths back in fourth at Cheltenham.

In fact a whopping seven of the last nine winners of this race ran in the Triumph, and I fancy the chances of rookie trainer Alan Fleming’s horse to reverse that Cheltenham form.

Alan King’s Walkon had a hard race in defeat at Cheltenham, and although he looks a cracking chaser in the making, I’m keen to take him on with Starluck now the latter benefits from a return to a flat track together with genuine good ground.

Starluck has plenty of speed from his flat days, and looked really impressive in winning at Huntingdon, Fakenham and Kempton on his way to a creditable fourth at the Festival.

He looked for all the world as if he had the beating of Zaynar off the home turn, but the hill was a bridge too far and he had to settle for fourth.

Aintree is a very different kettle of fish though, and I fully expect him to notch a big race win here.

Thursday’s Aintree tip:

Starluck (win) 2.35 Aintree