Prince de Beauchene, one of 10 Willie Mullins-trained horses entered at the initial stage of the John Smith’s Grand National on April 14, could well be the one that punters latch onto having been handed an ideal 10st 6lbs ahead of his bid to land the coveted marathon contest, writes Elliot Slater.

One of the least exposed runners in the field having joined Mullins’ yard from the now disqualified Howard Johnson in November, the nine-year-old has had just one outing for his new yard and that came within a fortnight of joining the County Carlow handler, when putting up an eye-catching performance to run fifth of the 25-runners in the Ladbrokes.com Troytown Handicap Chase at Navan.

In common with so many other horses from the yard, Prince de Beauchene has not been seen for some time as Mullins has waited to see what weights would be allotted to his posse of potential Aintree contenders, but the reaction of the betting public following the revelation of the weights on Valentine’s Day was to step in and support Prince de Beauchene who is now a best priced 20/1 for the ‘world’s greatest steeplechase’ having been available at up to 28/1 before the announcement was made. Clearly he has already attracted several online Grand National bets.

A winner of six of his 17 career starts, the gelded son of French Glory is ideally suited by plenty of cut in the round but as he showed at Aintree last year when landing the valuable listed John Smith’s Handicap Chase on the Mildmay Course on good ground over three-miles-one-furlong, he is also effective on a quicker surface as well. With his stable companions Quel Esprit, (recent winner of the Irish Hennessy Gold Cup), The Midnight Club, (a Grand National regular), and the progressive On His Own also likely to find favour in the ante-post market, there is no doubt that Mullins holds a particularly strong hand in this year’s event.