Navan Preview: With the ground at Navan today officially forecast to be "heavy" there won't be many willing to bet against the prolific Nickname notching up his sixth victory of the season.
No doubt the Martin Brassil team will be feeling a sense of "if only" about the going since Nickname was taken out of the Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham on the morning of the race when the festival surface turned good at just the wrong time.
It was a tough call for Brassil to make but it would have been even tougher for the Curragh trainer if he had based the entire winter around that one day. As it is, his decision to make the most of the suitably soft going now looks even more shrewd.
Instead of Cheltenham, Nickname now looks to have a relative penalty kick in the Grade Three Russell Restaurant An Uaimh Chase despite having to concede weight all round, including to the likes of the 2006 winner Watson Lake.
But a horse with a 168 rating has a lot in hand on today's race terms and with the vital heavy in the going description, Nickname is impossible to oppose.
Those looking for a reasonable price, however, should be on hand for the opening novice hurdle where Bahrain Storm looks another likely winner to make up for an unfortunate Cheltenham absence.
Pat Flynn's horse dotted up in a Limerick maiden at the start of the month and was strongly fancied to make his presence felt in the Fred Winter Juvenile at the festival only to just miss the ballot cut.
Davy Russell is on board Bahrain Storm today and the Flynn runner looks a better prospect than Heavenly Blues whose Naas win hasn't worked out too well and who was disappointing off the bridle on his last start behind Heron's Flight.
Point Barrow, one of the leading ante-post contenders for the Aintree Grand National, is scheduled to have his Liverpool warm-up in the handicap hurdle but it could be that the horse that ran second to him in January's Leopardstown Chase, A New Story, is the one to successfully revert to the smaller obstacles.
Ardlea Star sprang a 50 to 1 shock on his last start and goes in the novice handicap chase today where Royal Man might be the best each-way option.
