Grand National Betting

2011 Grand National Betting Guide Come April, all punters' eyes will be on Aintree when the world’s most famous steeplechase gets underway - The Grand National. With 40 runners and 30 fences to overcome, the National is seen as the hardest race of the year to try and pick a winner but it’s the one race that grabs the attention of the entire country with anyone of the runners going to post having a chance of victory. This Grand National betting guide will flag up some of the past trends and try to help you pick that elusive winner!

Given the gruelling challenge that the National offers to both horse and rider it’s not surprising a lot of people see the race as a lottery but with help from past race trends we can dramatically narrow down the big field.

Factors such as age, weight, breading, stamina, rating and course experience can more or less determine which horses you can put a line through and which horses you can put towards the top of your list.

Age

Ten of the last thirteen winners were aged nine or ten.
In the last 87 years no horse older than twelve has won the Grand National
We have to go back to 1940 to find a horse younger than eight to have won the Grand National

Weight

Since the war only five Grand Nationals have been won by horses carrying more than 11st 5lbs (two of those were by the incredible Red Rum)

Breading

Irish trained runners have won five of the last eleven Grand Nationals.
French bred runners have a poor record. Mon Mome bucked the trend last season by becoming the only French bred to have won the Grand National for nearly a century

Stamina

Every single winner of the National since Gay Trip in 1970 had previously won over three miles or further over fences.

Rating

Most recent Grand National winners ran off an official rating of between 136 and 157 (only Bobby Jo and Little Polvier winning from "out of the handicap")

Experience

Each of the last ten winners have had at least ten starts over fences.
Nine of the last ten winners had won a listed or graded chase
Every winner since 1970 had a win over three miles to their name

Once you’ve selected the horses you wish to bet on remember to have a look at the each-way terms that your bookmaker is offering. Handicap races with sixteen or more runners pay ¼ the odds a place 1,2,3,4 but with the National being such a big field some bookmakers will be paying the first five horses home or even six so don’t so yourself out of a place, shop around.

Click here to go back to the Horse Race Betting page.