Ben Pauling’s “bonkers” chance of training first ever million-pound Grand National winner with Twig

William Hill will have to shell out an extra half a million pounds if Twig wins Saturday’s Randox Grand National, something his trainer Ben Pauling has described as “bonkers” just days out from the world’s most famous race.

At the start of the 2025/26 jumps season, William Hill, who are the official betting partner of the Randox Grand National Festival, announced it would offer a £500,000 ‘Half A Mill’ bonus to any horse who could win any of three trial races for the National and the big race at Aintree itself.

Twig, trained in the Cotswolds by Pauling and owned by Mrs Georgia Morgan, has emerged as the only qualifier for the Half A Mill bonus having won the William Hill Half A Mill Becher Chase in December.

Add that to the race’s first prize of £500,000 and Twig would become the first horse in history to scoop a total of £1 million for winning the National at Aintree.

On Monday, it was confirmed that he would run in the great race, and now connections are faced with the prospect of a historic payday should Twig do the business. He would become the first horse in history to scoop a total of £1 million for winning the National, given the race’s first prize is also worth £500,000 on its own.

Speaking to the Jockey Club on the William Hill Half A Mill, Pauling said: “Winning £1 million in one race with a National Hunt horse would be quite bonkers. It’s huge prize money. The William Hill Half A Mill bonus is brilliant. It rewards the owners massively, but it also rewards myself and the team here that train the horse, and the staff as well, as well as the jockey.

“It (the William Hill Half A Mill bonus) gives us an incentive to run in the race even more. We’ve got to be realistic with how hard it’s going to be to achieve, but it is a great incentive. It’s huge prize money – amounts that you wouldn’t ever dream of achieving in a Jumps race at this stage.

“The Becher was always our target, as I didn’t necessarily think he’d be going to the National this year. I just felt we’d had our chance, and I was going to focus on the veterans’ series. But after he won at Aintree we changed the way we were training him to target this race, and it’s all gone really well.”

Another horse on owner Morgan’s mind should Twig land the Half A Mill

Georgia Morgan, Twig’s owner, also commented on Twig going for the William Hill Half A Mill: “Twig’s been the horse of a lifetime, really. We started right at the beginning with him and he’s still going. He’s going for the National, and the Half A Mill bonus, which will be hard to win. But you have no idea, really – you have to be in it to win it.

“What would I spend the bonus money on if he won? Probably another horse!”

And Pauling on what he’d spend the money on?

“I might buy myself a new pair of jeans. Nothing lavish for me. I would probably throw a party for it. That would probably be much more my style!”