David Pipe looks at the chances of his Aintree team

WE said goodbye to a couple of our stable stars earlier this week when we retired former Cheltenham Festival winners Un Temps Pour Tout and Moon Racer.

Both had terrific careers and we wish them a long and happy retirement.

Hopefully we can find suitable replacements for them and here’s hoping our City Syndicate recruits can reach the same heights they both did.

Looking at Aintree this afternoon and our only runner is EAMON AN CNOIC who takes his chance in the Red Rum Chase (4.40pm).

He ran a cracker when fourth in the Plate at the Cheltenham Festival and looks well worth a try back at this minimum trip.

I’m just a little worried he might get run off his feet a bit early, but he will certainly stay on well up the straight.

A little bit more rain wouldn’t go amiss for him either.

The weather will also dictate what I do with POKER PLAY and UMBRIGADO as both also hold entries at Aintree tomorrow and Saturday.

They are in good nick and should give good accounts wherever they run.

As for my National team, both RAMSES DE TEILLEE and VIEUX LION ROUGE are in great nick and ready to take their chance in the big one on Saturday.

They have been schooled over the Aintree-style fences that the racecourse kindly erected here at Pond House.

This week, we have had all the West Country trainers here, including Paul Nicholls, getting some practice into their runners.

As for our two, we worked out that Vieux Lion Rouge has already jumped 152 national fences under rules in his lifetime to date, so he didn’t really need that much match practice!

Both of my runners seem to be in great form and their preparations have been spot on up to this point.