Irish Grand National 2022 Tips: Check out our best bets for Fairyhouse on Easter Monday

The good racing seems to be non-stop at the moment and Easter Monday is certainly no exception. The feature race of a packed day is of course the Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse. Billy Grimshaw has the task of finding the winner for us and has picked one out he expects to relish the test...

The Irish Grand National is one of the highlights of the calendar across the Irish Sea and always has a stacked field of horses who either missed out on the Aintree spectacular or have been plotted for months to arrive cherry ripe for this contest. Since the year 2000 only Our Duke has carried more than eleven stone to success in this contest and if that pattern is to continue a fair few at the top of the market can be discounted. The favourite currently is Gaillard Du Mesnil for Willie Mullins, a horse who has been seeing the rear end of a few high class horses in his latest starts when dining at the top table and is now dropped back into a handicap. He has been beaten by L'Homme Presse, Galopin Des Champs and Bob Olinger in his last few races but was not disgraced in any of those performances and the fact he is the chosen mount of Paul Townend speaks volumes about stable confidence. At 13/2, however, and with a big weight to carry he is one I can sidestep.

Gordon Elliott is set to have a strong Gigginstown coloured hand in the race, with Farclas being the shortest price for the powerful trainer and owner combination. He was taken out of the Aintree Grand National and so connections will have high hopes he can justify that decision with a big performance here. Of the others, Death Duty was pulled up at Aintree last Saturday, Samcro was the same and Run Wild Fred fell. It would be a herculean effort were any of them to back up and win this race and of Elliott's Gigginstown squad I would prefer the aforementioned Farclas, Frontal Assault or Battleoverdoyen than the trio of Grand National runners.

The selection comes from the bottom of the weights and has the jockey I consider to be the best in the business at the moment in the saddle, Rachael Blackmore. FULL TIME SCORE for Henry De Bromhead. His performance last time out when beating Discorama by a length at this same track was impressive and the way he saw out his race indicated there would be no problem with this marathon trip. Still only an eight year old and very lightly raced he may not have the usual profile for this contest but all his performances on the track so far mark him out as one who will enjoy this test and he is a strong each-way selection.