The Grand National is without a doubt the greatest steeplechase in the world with millions tuning-in to watch live from over 150 countries and thousands thronging the stands at the famous Aintree course.
With 34 to choose from, picking a potential winner can be a pretty daunting task, however with our handy at-a-glance guide to all the runners, riders and best odds, you can find the latest prices and up-to-date information on all the entries for the 2025 Grand National.
Picking a potential winner for the 2026 Grand National can be a very daunting task and unfortunately there’s no magic formula, however you can improve your chances by doing some research. Many racegoers will make a selection based purely on the colour of silks or the name of the horse and this can sometimes be fruitful, however there are numerous more credible strategies which can be employed.
Should you be in attendance at Aintree on Grand National day itself, a visit to the parade ring gives you the chance to see the horses in the flesh. You can asses the runners’ fitness, temperament and general wellbeing – for example should a horse be agitated or sweating excessively, then this is almost certainly not a good sign. A calm and composed horse should generally give a good account of itself in the race itself.
If you’re not in attendance for the big day, then study the form of the horse. On Racecards, you will see numbers next to the horse’s name indicating finishing positions in its last few races, however these must be taken in context, for example: a horse finishing third in a race will have ‘3’ in its form but this could be in a three-horse race. It is vitally important to consider all context when looking at form. It can be wiser to look at the letters in a form guide. ‘D’ and ‘C’ represent horses that have won at that Distance or at the same Course. Should you see ‘CD’ joined together, that means that the runner has won both the same course and distance of the particular race under consideration.
‘U’ and ‘F’ mentioned in the form guide mean that the horse has Fallen and Unseated the jockey. ‘P’ means it was Pulled-up by the rider and ‘S’ means it slipped during the particular race.
Every horse in a race has odds which indicate it’s theoretical chance of being a winner and these odds fluctuate based on the weight of money placed upon them by the betting public. They can either shorten or lengthen (drift), a shortening price effectively meaning that support on this particular horse is increasing and a drifting price meaning that there is less support for this horse compared with the others in the race.
As mentioned earlier, there isn’t a magic formula for winning on horse racing but you can certainly enhance your chances of doing so by carrying out some research.
