The Randox Grand National is a different race these days to the race that it used to be. The brooks have been filled in, the bellies of the fences have been softened, the drops on the landing side have been levelled off, the distance of the race has been shortened. And this year, for the first time, the maximum number of runners has been reduced from 40 to 34.
Even so, it’s still the Grand National, steeped in history, with all its stories and all its iconic winners. From the first winner in 1839, the well-named Lottery, through Golden Millerl, Caughoo in the fog, Vincent O’Brien’s three-in-a-row in the 1950s, to Devon Loch, Foinavon, Red Rum, L’Escargot, Aldaniti and Bob Champion, Corbiere, Bobbyjo, Papillon, Minella Times and Rachael Blackmore, all the way to Tiger Roll, pint-sized Tiger Roll, the first horse since Red Rum to win the race twice.
They still have the launch to announce the weights too but, to be honest, there weren’t too many surprises at the 2024 iteration at St George’s Hall in Liverpool on Tuesday. Times were when the handicap was compressed at the top, when the high-rated horses were given lower weights than that which should have been determined by their respective handicap ratings in order to make it attractive for the classier horses to run. That one never really rested very easily and, this year, there is no compression.
Hewick is the highest-rated horse in the race, he will carry top weight of 11st 12lb. He is officially rated 169 on the back of his King George victory in December, and that is the rating off which he will run in the Grand National.
Hewick would be some story. The horse who famously cost his trainer John ‘Shark’ Hanlon €850, who has already won a Galway Plate and a Bet365 Gold Cup. In October last season, Hewick went to America and won the Grand National Hurdle at Far Hills, and in December this season his trainer took him to Kempton and he won the King George. The Hewick story is already a remarkable story, and he does have a date with the Cheltenham Gold Cup in the interim, but victory in the Grand National would bring it to a whole new level. Corach Rambler will be bidding to emulate Tiger Roll and Red Rum and win the race for the second year running. Lucinda Russell’s horse is rated 13lb higher this year than he was last year, and that makes it difficult, but not impossible.
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Tiger Roll was rated 150 when he won the race for the first time in 2018, and he was rated 159 when he won it for the second time in 2019. He made light of that 9lb higher mark, winning the race more easily the second time. Corach Rambler got home by just over two lengths in the end last year, but he travelled like the most likely winner from a long way out, and he idled when he hit the front. You can easily argue that he had a fair bit more in hand than the bare winning margin.
Like Hewick, Corach Rambler will go to Cheltenham before he goes to Aintree, but it may be that the plan is to have him at concert pitch on Grand National day. His trainer has previous in that regard too, she won the Grand National in 2017 with One For Arthur as well as last year with Corach Rambler.
Gordon Elliott has 26 entries in a race that he has won three times. Only George Dockeray, Fred Rimell and Ginger McCain have won it four times.
Pick of the Elliott entry? Maybe Galvin. His rating of 155 would leave him with 10st 12lb to carry as long as Hewick runs and the weights don’t go up, and that would be a lovely racing weight.
Galvin unseated at the first fence in the race last year, but he is a high-class staying chaser, a Savills Chase winner, and you know that his trainer will have him spot on for Aintree. He will run in the Cross-Country Chase at Cheltenham in the meantime, and a big run there could see his Aintree odds contract considerably.
John McConnell has never had a runner in the Grand National before. He got close to having a runner in 2021, when Some Neck didn’t get into the race as first reserve, but there are no worries on that front with Mahler Mission. The Mahler gelding hasn’t run since he finished second in the Coral Gold Cup at Newbury in early December, but his trainer reports him in rude health and on track for Aintree.
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Noble Yeats is also in rude health, as he proved when he won the Cleeve Hurdle at Cheltenham last month. Emmet Mullins’ horse confounded the statistics when he won the Grand National two years ago, a novice, the first seven-year-old to win the race since 1940, and he will be bidding to emulate Red Rum in winning the race, getting beaten in it, then coming back to win it again.
Vanillier ran a big race last year, Gavin Cromwell’s horse staying on well to take second place behind Corach Rambler, and he is only 4lb higher than he was last year. An Aintree Grand National would be a significant addition to the CV of a trainer who has already won the Welsh Grand National, the Cork Grand National and the Ulster Grand National.
Willie Mullins’ burgeoning CV includes an Aintree Grand National — Hedgehunter’s in 2005 — and he has 13 entries in a horse race that has changed and is changing, but is still the most famous of them all.
Three at longer odds that are worth a longer look
Best value: I Am Maximus (25/1)
Proved his stamina when winning the Irish Grand National last year, he is a Grade 1 performer who was impressive in winning the Bobbyjo Chase at Fairyhouse on Saturday.
Panda Boy (20/1)
High-class handicapper who stays well and who could sneak in at the bottom of the weights for trainer Martin Brassil, who won the race in 2006 with Numbersixvalverde.
Capodanno (25/1)
Ran well for a long way in the race last year off a far-from-ideal preparation, and proved his wellbeing when he won the Cotswold Chase at Cheltenham last month.