THE GRAND NATIONAL
Saturday 5th April, 16:00pm
I Am Maximus @ 7/1
Stumptown @ 15/2
Iroko @ 15/2
Hewick @ 17/2
Vanillier @ 17/2
Perceval Legallois @ 9/1
*prices correct at time of writing.
THE RACE
In the 186 years since Lottery won the first Grand National, the race has become so much the world’s best known steeplechase that it’ll be followed on TV in more than 160 countries. The quality of the 177th staging is inarguable with the presence of runners including last year’s winner I Am Maximus and a lengthy list of rivals with form in some fancy chases.
That does all come at a price however – with so many bigger names in the line-up, a decline in the number of ‘fairytale’ runners is inevitable (though one or two remain).
THE OWNER
Having finally put a stack of near-misses behind him and tasted Grand National glory in 2010 with Don’t Push It, JP McManus has never looked back. Minella Times’ historic win with Rachael Blackmore on board (2021), and I Am Maximus have since made it a record-equalling three victories in the green and gold silks, and their exploits have apparently only increased his appetite for the race.
No less than four leading contenders carry McManus’ colours, and while I Am Maximus (up 8 pounds) and Meetingofthewaters (7th in 2024) have not been in sparkling form of late, there is a groundswell of support for his British-trained Iroko and for runaway Leopardstown chase winner Perceval Legallois. Meanwhile Nicky Henderson insists that McManus’ only outsider Chantry House is a player.
THE OWNER
Tom Gibney’s operation in County Meath is no one-horse outfit, but in 2025 having thirty ‘in’ makes a stable on the smaller side, and, as the trainer of well-fancied Intense Raffles put it himself, that scenario “goes against the current state of affairs” in jumping.
Thus victory for Gibney, whose last success came in December, would be seen as one for the ‘little guy’, though it’s perhaps telling that the seven-year-old still runs for ‘powerhouse’ owner/breeders in Simon Munir and Issac Souede.
Aintree has been the plan for Intense Raffles since the horse became Gibney’s second Irish Grand National winner in 2024; following two hurdle races, he put in an excellent trial in February (after the weights were published) when a close second behind Nick Rockett at Fairyhouse, and as a result is technically five pounds ‘well in’.
THE JOCKEY
Maisemore point-to-point, Gloucester, March 2021, and a Maiden was won in taking style by a six-year-old named Twig, ridden by sixteen-year-old son Beau Morgan who’d been permitted a day off from GCSE studies.
Those that witnessed the race liked what they saw from horse and jockey, though not many can claim to have seen it because Covid restrictions allowed for only a few dozen to be present.
Wind forward four years, and Twig has won or been placed in thirteen out of seventeen races under Rules – including a runners-up spot at Cheltenham – and Morgan, now 20 is a five-pound claiming conditional rider with thirty-four winners to his name, more than enough to ride in the Grand National.
80/1 shots they may be, but in a race where a longshot often features unexpectedly, the horse has plenty of decent form in the book and will go on drying ground so Twig and Morgan may climb further up the tree.
THE FAIRYTALE
John Rosbotham and his best friend at junior school Richard Phillips have dreamed of having a Grand National runner since galloping around their playground in Surrey pretending to be the 1971 winner Specify, which was trained just down the road from them in Epsom.
Now respectively, a management consultant and the racehorse trainer Richard Phillips, the pair’s long-held ambition finally brings them, along with eleven friends and family to Aintree with a big-race runner, Idas Boy, running for the well-named Dozen Dreamers syndicate.
All involved with the eleven-year-old – which includes a lady from the Isle of Man whose mother once rode Red Rum during one of his renowned supermarket openings – believe the one-time winner of Ireland’s Midlands Grand National at Kilbeggan is thriving for a move to Phillips’ boutique Cotswold base and can out-run his 150/1 odds.
THE MARKET
The team at Fitzdares fear a whole raft of runners but particularly the Gavin Cromwell-trained Stumptown, on a five-timer after wins over the cross-country course at Cheltenham and the banks at Punchestown.
And there is Iroko, trained with one target in mind by an in-form and up and coming partnership in Oliver Greenall and Josh Guerriero. Iroko leads the home team as the Brits attempt to break recent Irish superiority, and there’s a solid turnout for the home side, and support for Kandoo Kid, Hyland and Beauport (in the Corbiere colours) can be anticipated.
As to what jumps off as favourite, as well as Stumptown and Iroko, I Am Maximus, Intense Raffles, Hewick and race-regular Vanillier (yet another one trained by Gold Cup winner Cromwell) all receive plenty of mentions. Good luck.
CORNELIUS’ QUARTET
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