SO it’s Take Two for the Coral Welsh National today, and it looks like the race is going to beat the elements this time. It may be that it only beats them by a couple of hours, hence the move to a 1.45pm start time from the originally-intended 3.25pm start time, but it’s the result that matters, not the winning distance.

So it goes without saying that conditions are going to be testing, and that will suit most of those horses who are towards the head of the market. Cogry cannot have too stiff a test of stamina, Mountainous won the race two years ago on heavy ground, and rider Aidan Coleman said during the week that Emperor’s Choice, who won the race last year on heavy ground, wants it just about raceable.

The market has been forming and evolving for weeks now, and it got another shake-up when Alan King ruled Midnight Prayer out on Wednesday, but Red Devil Lads is still available at 16/1, and that looks a little too big. Rebecca Curtis’ horse was a really progressive young staying chaser last spring, winning three on the bounce and rising from a mark of 109 when he won at Exeter in March to a mark of 136 after he won at Ffos Las in April.

He only got home by a length and a half at Ffos Las that day, but he left the impression that he had more in hand than that, he had Mountainous back in fifth place, and the race is working out well. The third horse, Buachaill Alainn, is now rated 13lb higher than he was then, while the fourth horse, Top Wood, put up a good performance on his only run since, his debut this season, to finish a close-up second behind Tour Des Champs at Chepstow last month.

Red Devil Lads has also run just once since, he put up a nice performance to finish second behind the talented Katkeau at Ludlow three and a half weeks ago. He led from early that day, and, while a mistake at the second last fence didn’t help, he still kept on well up the run-in to go down by just five lengths, finishing clear of the rest.

The handicapper raised him 2lb for that, but because this is an early-closing race, he gets to race off his old mark of 136, so he is 2lb well-in. More than that, however, he has the potential to go a fair way higher even than his new mark.

He has just turned seven and he has raced just seven times over fences. He has lots of scope for progression as a staying chaser.

He jumped to his left at right-handed Ludlow, so he should be much happier back going left-handed today. He stays three miles well and, out of a bumper and point-to-point winner and a half-brother to three-mile hurdle winner I’m A Witness, he could improve again for this extreme test today.

HOPES FOR LOCAL WIN

Trainer Rebecca Curtis would surely love to win her local Grand National. She went close with Teaforthree in the 2012/13 renewal, so you can be sure that she has had this race in mind for Red Devil Lads – and indeed for Bob Ford – for a while.

In that regard, the trainer’s horses were not in great form in mid-November after a bad batch of hay, so the fact that the race has been delayed by 13 days may be a help to Red Devil Lads, whose Ludlow run was on 16th December. And Jonathan Burke is a really interesting booking.

The Beneficial gelding races prominently, which is a positive in a Welsh National, it can be difficult to make ground from the rear in attritional conditions, and he could out-perform his odds by a fair way. Conditions will probably not be as soft at Kempton as at Chepstow, but they will still be testing, and that will suit Yala Enki in the Lanzarote Hurdle.

Beaten just a head by the talented Doctor Phoenix at Uttoxter on soft ground last March on his British debut, Venetia Williams’ horse put up a really taking performance when he won a novices’ hurdle at Exeter in early November on his debut this season. He made just about all the running that day, galloping on strongly on the easy ground from the top of the home straight to come home 16 lengths clear of Duke Des Champs, who was in turn clear of the remainder.

Duke Des Champs proved the merit of that form by beating Matorico next time, and then by going down narrowly to Masterplan in a good conditional jockeys’ handicap hurdle at Ascot off a mark of 128.

Yala Enki has run just once since, he could only finish fifth in the Fixed Brush Hurdle at Haydock in late November. That was a strong race, however, with lots of pace on early, and he just couldn’t get into a rhythm on the front end. He is better than he was able to show there.

He is potentially well-handicapped on a mark of 130. (Duke Des Champs is now rated 135 and Yala Enki beat him by 16 lengths in November off level weights.)

The Nickname gelding has just turned six and he has raced just six times over hurdles, just three times for Venetia Williams. He has the potential to go well beyond a mark of 130.

This is usually a strong race, and there are some interesting unexposed young horses in here, like Bivouac and Ibis Du Rheu and Westren Warrior, but Yala Enki shares that characteristic with that trio, and he is a bigger price than all three. He had other potential targets today, so it is interesting that Venetia Williams is happy to allow him take his chance in the Lanzarote Hurdle, a race that she won in 2004 with Limerick Boy when it was run over two miles.

RECOMMENDED

RED DEVIL LADS, 16/1 (generally) 1 point each-way

YALA ENKI, 6/1 (BoyleSports) or 11/2 (generally) 1 point win