Horse Racing Tips: Better Days Ahead can strike for Gordon Elliott

There’s an abundance of action taking place across Britain and Ireland on Easter Monday, with eight meetings and nine races live on ITV. The big race of the day is Fairyhouse’s Irish Grand National and it should be an excellent renewal. 

Cork kicks us off, before the action continues at Redcar, Wolverhampton, Chepstow, Plumpton, Fairyhouse, Fakenham and Kempton. We have three strong fancies to follow across the afternoon, and among them is one for trainer Gordon Elliott, who has the ideal profile in the Irish Grand National. 

14:35 Plumpton - Asta La Pasta @ 4/1

Dan Skelton will be very keen to mop up more prize money to extend or maintain his lead on Willie Mullins and ASTA LA PASTA appears to be his best chance of a winner at Plumpton on Monday. He looks very hard to oppose here and a big run is expected. 

There's £100,000 on offer in the feature race, the Sussex Champion Chase, and his gelding comes into the race off the back of a very comfortable success at Ayr last time out, where he scored by a margin of 37 lengths. 

The handicapper's decision to only put him up 5lb for that success looks incredibly generous, and if he turns up in similar form, surely victory will be on the cards once again. He has been a little bit hit-and-miss so far this season, he has two chase wins to his name so far. 

It's also worth noting that he finished third behind Kalif Du Berlais at Newbury earlier on in the season. Less than three lengths behind that day, his conqueror went on to win the Grade 1 Maghull at Aintree. 

Clearly the handicapper has given Asta La Pasta a bit of a chance here and it would be a big surprise if he fails to take full advantage. 

16:20 Fairyhouse - Heart Wood @ 5/6

Henry de Bromhead and Rachael Blackmore are always a combination to follow and they tend to do well in the major spring meetings. HEART WOOD represents the pair in this Grade 2 chase and he's very much the one to beat. 

This son of Choeur Du Nord produced a career-best display when runner-up to the excellent Fact To File in the Ryanair Chase at the Cheltenham Festival and that form suggests he'll need to underperform in order to get beat here. 

He won't find anything with a similar level of ability to Fact To File in this race and the 160-rated seven-year-old can come out on top this time around.

17:00 Fairyhouse - Better Days Ahead @ 14/1

Novices have a particularly strong recent record in the Irish Grand National, which indicates that younger horses with scope for improvement have a significant advantage. With that in mind, Gordon Elliott's runner BETTER DAYS AHEAD must have a massive chance. 

Third in the Grade 1 Brown Advisory Novices' Chase last time out, the unseasonably quick ground was against him and he is definitely capable of better. The softer ground here at Fairyhouse is a big plus and he shapes as if the marathon trip could suit. 

Better Days Ahead won the Martin Pipe at Cheltenham as a novice hurdler and possesses a touch of class, which many of his rivals don't. Rob James takes 7lb off and that could prove significant, as carrying 11-12 would have been a big ask.

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