Joe Tizzard Aintree Day One runners blog: 'We'll look to use his speed and play him late'

Joe Tizzard has two runners on Day One of Aintree on Thursday, April 9, 2026. The Coral ambassador previews those two runners in his latest blog.

• Alexei - Aintree - 4.05 race odds

• Fairy Park - Aintree - 5.15 race odds

Aintree 4.05 – Alexei

We’re taking a small but select team to Aintree this week, there was a decent gap between Cheltenham and this meeting this year, so hopefully the horses who ran last month will have had enough time to get over that and do themselves justice here.

There is a slight question mark over Alexei, as this will be his first time running over  2½ miles, but if he hadn’t made the mistake at the last in the Champion Hurdle, I think he would have been right there with The New Lion and Brighterdaysahead, and on this flatter track, there’s every reason to think he’ll get the extra distance, it’s not like he has the Cheltenham hill to climb at the end of it.

On ratings he’s only a couple of pounds behind The New Lion, and just one behind Brighterdaysahead, although the mare gets weight obviously, so he deserves to be here, and if he proves he stays it opens up more options for next season, and if not there are plenty of good races over two miles for him.