The Grand National meeting begins tomorrow at Aintree and there is the usual feast of top class racing through all three days.

The annual mystery is whether Cheltenham form will be confirmed or overturned. This year there’s been four weeks between the two meetings, and ordinarily that would be enough time for most horses to recover from their earlier exertions. However, the heavy ground at Cheltenham is an unusual complication.

In the National itself Evan Williams runs Buywise, winner of the Veterans Chase Final at Sandown. He completed the course in twelfth place two years ago. Minella Daddy and Henri Parry Morgan (Peter Bowen) and Relentless Dreamer (Rebecca Curtis) could run but need at least a dozen higher-rated horses to be withdrawn on Thursday.

Chepstow form students will be watching Raz De Maree, trained in Ireland by Gavin Cromwell, to see if the 13-year-old can make it a National double after scoring in the Welsh version in January. His partner that day, James Bowen, has been booked to ride Shantou Flyer, on whom the 17-year-old finished second in a Cheltenham Festival handicap. Bowen is bidding to become the youngest jockey ever to win the National.

His brother Sean takes the mount on Paul Nicholls’s lightly-campaigned Warriors Tale. He is owned by Trevor Hemmings, who is as determined as ever to win the race despite having done so already with Hedgehunter, Ballabriggs and Many Clouds.

There’s racing at Chepstow as well on Saturday, and Bad Manners will be performing live after racing finishes. All the Grand National day action can be followed on the big screen and on TVs in the stands. Rock My Style, a Chepstow winner in February, bids to follow up in the first race at Aintree.

Penhow trainer Robert Stephens could have as many as three runners at Chepstow, the best of which appears to be Three Colours Red, a winner of four races in all. This would be his third run after a break, so he should be ready to do himself justice. He’s very consistent over jumps, being placed in 10 of his 13 races.

Grace Harris could run her recent Ffos Las winner Maguire’s Glen in the two and a half mile chase. He’d have a leading chance but Deborah Faulkner’s dual course winner Beallandendall could make it interesting. Although his two victories this year have come over half a mile less, he has won a couple of point-to-points.

The David Evans-trained juvenile Lihou won the first race at Kempton’s meeting last Saturday. The colt benefited from the experience of having a run already, and though he only hit the front in the last few strides his jockey Fran Berry looked confident he’d get there in time. Evans reported that he would have won more easily given a better draw. He pointed to the lack of early season two-year-old races and was unable to say where Lihou would run next.

In the same race he had also saddled Disruptor, who was badly outpaced early on but went into several notebooks by virtue of his fast-finishing fifth place. He may be a better long-term prospect, for he is entered in valuable sales races at Newbury and York in the summer. He’s owned by Simon Munir and Isaac Souede, who are better known for their string of high class National Hunt horses.