The biggest day in the horse racing calendar is fast approaching – the 2018 Grand National will be run at 5.15pm at Aintree on Saturday. The snow may have passed but it looks like it could be a damp few days in Liverpool and fashion conscious race goers are going to have to mix fashionable with practical.
The most important part of an Aintree race goer’s attire is pockets – deep pockets to store all those winnings. Anyone who backs the winner is going to get a decent return, the average odds of the Grand National winner over the past decade has been just over 32/1. Despite those odds it’s not as hard as it seems to make money from the race, so how do I find the Grand National Winner this year?
There are many ‘fun’ ways to pick Grand National bets. Arguably the most popular of those are to follow the silks, be it a favourite colour, silks that match a football team or a particularly funky design.
Names are also extremely popular. Fans of 90s action films might latch on to Total Recall, cat lovers could back Tiger Roll and those who like a bit of randomness to their names might like to back Chase The Spud. This is one of the reasons that former Grand National runner Shakalakaboomboom was overbet in the 2012 and 2014 Grand Nationals. Check out the full list of Grand National 2018 runners by name here.
Irish runners are always popular, both sides of the Irish Sea, and they hold an extremely strong hand this year with 3 of the 4 current favourites (Tiger Roll, Total Recall and Anibale Fly).
Perhaps the biggest story of the race this year though is the emergence of young, female jockey, Bryony Frost. The 22 year old has been a revelation this season and is set to partner Milansbar in her first Grand National ride. The 33/1 shot, at the time of writing, is sure to shorten on the day when the bets on Bryony Frost to make a winning debut begin to mount up.
If looking for a good old fashioned form choice then it’s best to stick to those that enjoy soft ground and stay very long distances, the 4.25 mile trip is going to be all the more gruelling if the ground remains on the soft side which looks extremely likely. Two horses that seem to fit the bill are well fancied Irish pair Total Recall and Anibale Fly. Both were deemed good enough to run in last month’s Cheltenham Gold Cup (also run on soft ground) with the former falling late on when making a promising move and the latter staying on into a highly credible 3rd. Both should enjoy conditions and have live chances on several bits of form this year.