Scottish Grand National Betting Preview & Predictions (2025)

All eyes will be on Ayr Racecourse for the £200,000 Scottish Grand National on Saturday afternoon, with a total of 23 declared runners competing for the prize.

The full field of Scottish Grand National runners was finalised on Thursday morning, with Willie Mullins – chasing back-to-back British trainers championships – firing six darts at the feature race this weekend.

With the added drama of a trainer’s championship up for grabs, the 2025 renewal of the Scottish Grand National is going to be an enthralling affair from the very second the tapes go up.

Naturally I have to start with the chances of the Willie Mullins runners, and the genius trainer heads into Ayr’s four mile marathon with a battle hardened group of six horses.

Purely on this year’s form figures alone, his leading entry appears to be Olympic Man. Running in the same colours as Galopin Des Champs, the eight-year-old was last seen winning a 2m4f beginners’ chase at Naas.

Admittedly the gelding has yet to run over three miles, but his sire Martaline has produced some decent staying chasers down the years, and this race is a natural progression for him.

The betting however contradicts my Olympic Man theory, and punters out there are making Mullins’ Chosen Witness the clear market leader in our Scottish National horse racing odds.

He was still very much involved when coming down at the fourth-last in the 3m Grade 2 William Hill Best Odds Guaranteed Novice Chase when last seen at Navan in February. Horses such as Better Days Ahead, Stellar Story and Three Card Brag were all in opposition that day, making it a pretty hot contest in terms of form.

Macdermott was of course last year’s fairly surprising 18/1 winner of the race, but his form this season has been woeful and it’s really hard to see why some punters still fancy him for a repeat victory?

Seven-year-old Spanish Harlem ran sixth in this race last year, but was only 8¼ lengths adrift of Macdermott and comes into this race another year older, wiser and maturer.

Captain Cody has a fair few fans in the betting, with his best piece of form being a narrow third behind Three Card Brag in a beginners’ chase at Navan in January. He then unseated in the National Hunt Chase at the Cheltenham Festival, when quietly supported in the market.

Klarc Kent really will have to be superman to better last year’s fourth in this race, but to be fair his indifferent looking form figures this season have been down to running behind some of the best staying chasers around, including our newly crowned Aintree Grand National hero – Nick Rockett.

The shortest priced British contender for the Scottish National is the Joe Tizzard-trained Rock My Way. The seven-year-old has held his form really well all season, and he ran a cracker behind Haiti Couleurs at The Festival.

Nicky Henderson, Paul Nicholls, Nigel Twiston-Davies etc, all have their own live candidates but it is the relatively unknown Faye Bramley that can pip all these training powerhouses to the post with her horse, Walking On Air.

Based at AP McCoy’s pre-training yard in Lambourn, Bramley is now the new handler of the eight-year-old, who started off under the tutelage of Nicky Henderson, then most recently Gary Brown.

The Walk In The Park-gelding looks a stayer through and through, and can provide jockey Richie McLernon with some long overdue  “National” success.

Suggested bet for the 2025 Scottish Grand National: Walking On Air (12/1)