AINT BAD AT ALL BUT UP FOR A FLAT PROFIT

Ben Morgan looks back on his jumps festival punting highlights and onwards to three big Flat fancies

- Ben Morgan

After yet another 'nearly' week at Cheltenham I was itching to get stuck into Aintree which so often rewards the hard luck stories from a month previous.

I bought my Dad a ticket as his/my Christmas present so we made the journey up there full of hope and expectation on Day 1. The opening race went the way of II Etait Temps for the Willie Mullins team who improved for the step up in trip to turn over the hot favourite Grey Dawning whilst my speculative outside punt on Colonel Harry didn't pay any dividends.

It was a different story in the second race as I rated Sir Gino (£100 at 11/10) as one of the bets of the day at around the 11/10 mark. He was the first leg of many multiples for the day and week so I was keen to see an upturn in Nicky Henderson stable form almost immediately.

Having missed Cheltenham he came here a fresh horse whilst his main rival Kargese had already had two hard races at Leopardstown and Cheltenham which gave him an obvious advantage.

Having been a hot favourite at Cheltenham the late market drift didn't worry me but his lack of fluency at one or two of his hurdles certainly made me wince. Nico de Boinville was mustard in the saddle however and delivered a well-judged ride to overcome the tough Kargsese up the straight. A great start. I watched that race with a degree of calmness compared to my dad who also thought plenty of Sir Gino but that calmness went out the window when Jack Kennedy angled out Gerri Colombe (£80 at 9/4) in the next. A gallant second in the Gold Cup, he looked to have an obvious chance of going one better here but so many times do we see the Gold Cup horses bounce here it was hard to be 100per cent confident.