Intro:

The favourite Finian's Rainbow won the feature race on day two of the Aintree Festival on Friday (13th April), despite crashing through a barrier prior to the race.

Ridden by Barry Geraghty, Finian's Rainbow came home ahead of Wishful Thinking in second and Albertas Run in third.

Script:

A cloudy day two at the Aintree Festival and favourite Finian's Rainbow looked unsettle as he crashed through a barrier before the start of the Grade One John Smith Melling chase.

However jockey Barry Geraghty settled the nine-year old, and in the end bought him home first ahead of Wishful Thinking in second and Albertas Run in third.

By the first hurdle the 13-8 favourite was in the slipstream of Poquelin and Albertas Run, who had already opened up a gap on the rest of the field.

Finian's Rainbow settled into third position where he stayed for much of the race, but with three fences to go Geraghty made his move, going through a gap between the leaders.

And once the favourite hit the front on the turn for home, he had enough to easily hold off Wishful Thinking (15-2), before going on to win by seven lengths in this two and a half mile race.

The 2010 winner and last year's runner-up Albertas Run (11-4) stayed on for third under Tony McCoy, 11 lengths further back.

So there were further celebrations for trainer Nicky Henderson and Geraghty following their triumph with Finian's Rainbow in the Champion Chase at Cheltenham last month.

The Aintree festival culminates on Saturday (14th April) with the iconic Grand National Steeplechase.