The biggest ever team of Irish-trained horses will contest Saturday’s Randox Aintree Grand National.
Last year saw the visitors saddle a majority of the maximum 40-runner field for the first time. But 27 contenders this time is an overwhelming measure of Irish strength and intent to land the world’s most famous steeplechase.
With the country’s powerhouse operations to the fore, bookmakers offer cramped 1-3 odds about a 30th Irish trained success in the 175th renewal of jump racing’s showpiece event.
Nevertheless, the National’s capacity to confound expectations means a home winner can hardly be ruled out.
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If the long-time ante-post favourite Corach Rambler qualifies as Scottish, then Le Milos comes from the heart of England and boasts first-rate claims in his own right.
Market forces appear to be firmly pointing towards something of a ‘greenwash’ however with Friday’s betting particularly focused on Rachael Blackmore’s mount Ain’t That A Shame.
Blackmore famously teamed up with Henry de Bromhead for Minella Times’ ground-breaking National victory in 2021 and the Co. Waterford trainer has another string to his bow in the outsider Gabby’s Cross.
Numerically though power looks to lie with the two other figures in Irish jump racing’s training triumvirate.
Gordon Elliott has a half dozen chances to secure a record-equalling fourth National victory.
They include Delta Work, third to Noble Yeats a year ago, and Galvin who could provide Davy Russell with the sort of Hollywood career ending that shouldn’t really happen but which the National seems to specialise in.
Noble Yeats’ rider Sam Waley-Cohen called it a day after winning a year ago and the horse returns to try and emulate both Tiger Roll and the legendary Red Rum as a back-to-back winner.
It is 18 years since Willie Mullins landed the National with Hedgehunter who went on a year later to finish runner up in the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
On jockey bookings, Gaillard Du Mesnil appears to top the champion trainer’s handful of starters this time.
Paul Townend has opted for the grey and will bid to pull off a famous National double having performed heroics to win Easter Monday’s Irish version on I Am Maximus.
It’s a ‘doable’ double too considering Mouse Morris managed it in 2016 with a pair of Gigginstown Stud horses and Michael O’Leary did it again a couple of years later.
This time the Ryanair boss will try to become the first owner to win at Aintree on four occasions with a quartet of hopefuls topped by Delta Work.
Quantity-wise though O’Leary is outgunned by his great rival JP McManus who on the back of I Am Maximus has the big double in his sights.
Topweight Any Second Now is one of six carrying the famous green and gold silks which were carried to success both on Minella Times and Don’t Push It in 2010.
Placed in the last two years, it could be dangerous to presume Any Second Now’s chance has gone despite having to concede weight all round.
That McManus’s number one rider Mark Walsh has opted to persevere with him will encourage fans although trainer Ted Walsh hasn’t been making especially confident noises.
“He’s as good as he can be and I think he’s as good as he was last year. That probably won’t be good enough, but any more than that I can’t do.
“He is rated 8lb higher than last year and he couldn’t win it last year, so it is very hard to see him winning now. But he’s in good nick, he goes there with a good chance and I’m glad to have him,” he said.
It’s a reminder to casual punters and a half billion worldwide TV audience of how the National is a handicap designed to try and even things out.
That’s why a family-owned horse like The Big Dog has a feasible chance of becoming perhaps the most unfortunately named National winner ever.
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Both an aptly named and hugely popular winner would be Lifetime Ambition. Jessica Harrington bids to fill in the one major gap left in her National Hunt CV having recent revealed she is battling breast cancer.
By winning at 50-1 a year ago, Noble Yeats was a reminder of how the National’s lottery element hasn’t entirely disappeared despite extensive modifications to the famous fences.
It is still fair to point out how the nature of the race has changed.
As a pure test of jumping, it is no longer in the same league as when Red Rum first won the race half a century. Tiger Roll’s near-hurdling style over the spruce obstacles underlined how quality horses now generally hold sway.
It is rare to view the National through a prism of future potential but a year after Noble Yeats became the first seven-year-old in over 80 years to win, it could apply to Capodanno.
A Grade 1 novice winner last season, Willie Mullins ran out of time to get him ready for last month’s Gold Cup, but still views him as a potential ‘Blue Riband’ contender in 2024.
This will be just Capodanno’s seventh start over fences which in the past would have been a major negative.
The modern National however could be made to exploit a high but still workable handicap mark that may underestimate his talent and supply JP McManus with a famous National double in five days.
Prediction
1. Capodanno.
2. Le Milos.
3. Our Power.
4. Carefully Selected.
5. Longhouse Poet.
