Horse Racing Tips
Grand National Favourites discussed
A famously unpredictable race, any of the Grand National’s traditional 40 runners could be in with a chance of winning the world’s most famous race.
Even so, some horses have better claims to first place than others, and clear favourites emerge with each renewal.
Here we will discuss the chances of the most fancied runners in the Grand National, based on their age, proven ability and trainer’s record.
Bet on the Grand National with William Hill
Corach Rambler
Now a nine-year-old, this gelding of Lucinda Russell’s has a handy habit of saving his best performance of the season until last. A reliable performer who has never finished worse than sixth place when completing a race, Corach Rambler will try his luck for the first time in the Grand National, having won the Ultima at the Cheltenham Festival for the second year running, and finds himself favourite at 13/2.
Prior to winning at Cheltenham, the gelding was assigned 10st 5lbs by the handicapper for the National, which now looks very generous indeed given how well he ran his race at Cheltenham in March. This weight allocation will help him no end when he is exposed to the 4m 2f trip for the first time.
A proven stayer over three miles, but reasonably unexposed over further, Corach Rambler will have to dig deep to prove his staying ability over the mammoth trip of the Grand National. Not usually a keen-running sort, his level-headed attitude to the early stages of his races will be advantageous as preservation of energy is paramount in a race like this. The state of the going at Aintree this week, currently good-to-soft, will suit the gelding too.
His trainer, Lucinda Russell, last won the Grand National in 2017 with One For Arthur, so we can rely on her to produce a horse capable of running well over the Aintree fences. Since this win, Irish-trained horses have dominated the Grand National, winning for the last four years. Perhaps Lucinda Russell will be the British trainer to claw the prize back for the UK.
Delta Work
Another winner at the Cheltenham Festival this year, Delta Work for Gordon Elliott will have a stronger case for the win in some eyes. Currently second favourite at 7/1, the 10-year-old finished third in last year’s Grand National, giving him an edge over Corach Rambler in terms of proven staying ability. Adding to that, his recent two-and-a-half length win of the Glenfarclas Chase at the Cheltenham Festival last month is evidence that he’s in great form and should be fit and ready to win again at Aintree.
Gordon Elliott’s record of training Grand National winners speaks for itself; three wins in the last 16 years, including two consecutive wins in 2018 and 2019 with Tiger Roll, who on both occasions had, like Delta Work, won the Cross-Country Chase at Cheltenham just weeks before. His record thus tells us that the Glenfarclas is excellent preparation for the Grand National, and gives Delta Work’s claims an extra boost.
He may carry nearly a stone more than the favourite, but Delta Work is more than well enough proven in staying and jumping ability to go a couple of places better in the Grand National than he did last year.
Bet on the Grand National with William Hill
Noble Yeats
Last year’s 50/1 winner of the Grand National, Noble Yeats has been taken much more seriously in his races this year, and rightly so, as he has been in excellent form all winter.
Now 8/1 for this year’s contest, there’s little to suggest that the Emmet Mullins-trained gelding will not go well once again and make a decent bid for a second win. Admittedly, more than one Grand National victory is extraordinarily rare, with only Red Rum and Tiger Roll having achieved this since the 1970s.
Noble Yeats comes to Aintree once again having won here in December and run fourth in the Cheltenham Gold Cup with a good round of jumping and staying on well in the finish. If Aintree is the course that gets the best out of him, there is not much standing in his way for a good result. We know he can jump, stay and handle the ground.
The question is, can he do it better than the rest of the field while carrying 11st 11lbs? Near-top-weight winners in the Grand National are rare, but not unheard of. Many Clouds, for example, won the race in 2015 carrying 11st 9lbs but, statistically, Noble Yeats is likely to be disadvantaged by being allocated 11st 11lbs for this year’s race.
Gaillard Du Mesnil
If any Cheltenham Festival race was to be pegged as the best preparation for the Grand National, the National Hunt Challenge Cup would surely be in contention. Three miles and six furlongs around the Old Course at Prestbury Park is quite some test, but one that Willie Mullins’ Gaillard Du Mesnil negotiated near perfectly, and is now 14/1 fourth favourite for the National.
Only having to go another four furlongs this time around, Mullins’ charge is looking well placed to make himself known to his main rivals. While it is true that horses aged seven, as Gaillard Du Mesnil is, do not often win the race and usually need a couple more years to mature and gain experience, let’s not forget that Noble Yeats won last year aged seven, defying very long odds.
Willie Mullins hasn’t won a Grand National since 2005 but is having a monumentally successful season. A proven stayer like Gaillard Du Mesnil need only prove that he can jump consistently well enough to prove his worth. Carrying 11-stone, he’s certainly not without a chance but is still likely to have something to find on form with the three above him in the market.
