Category: Grand National

In 2019, Tiger Roll was sent off 4/1 favourite to become the first horse since Red Rum, in 1974, to win the Grand National two years running. The diminutive 9-year-old did so, making him the shortest priced winner of the National for exactly a century. Indeed, in 172 runnings of the celebrated steeplechase, just five winners have been sent off at odds shorter than 4/1. The first four were, in chronological order, Anatis (7/2) in 1860, The Huntsman (3/1) in 1862, The Colonel (7/2) in 1870 and Roquefort (10/3) in 1885.

However, the shortest priced winner in the history of the Grand National was Poethlyn, who had won the substitute ‘War National’ at Gatwick in 1918 and was consequently sent off 11/4 favourite for the so-called ‘Victory National’, when the race returned to Aintree in 1919. Ridden by Ermie Piggott, grandfather of Lester, Poethlyn was saddled with the welter burden of 12st 7lb, but justified favouritism in fine style. Always prominent, Poethlyn made headway from Valentine’s Brook on the second circuit to dispute the lead two fences later. By the second-last fence he had established a clear lead over his nearest rival, Ballybogan, who was receiving 11lb, and eventually won easily, by 8 lengths.

In the absence of Tiger Roll, who was withdrawn from the 2021 Grand National in early March, Cloth Cap, trained by Jonjo O’Neill, is clear favourite in the ante-post lists. The 9-year-old comfortably beat four higher-rated rivals, on unfavourable terms, in the Premier Chase at Kelso in March and, as the Grand National is an ‘early closer’, can run off an identical handicap mark at Aintree. Owned by Trevor Hemmings, who already has three Grand National winners to his name, Cloth Cap had previously won the Ladbroke Trophy with plenty in hand and, although his odds are plenty short enough, at 5/1, he fully deserves his position at the head of the market.

Next best, at 12/1, comes Any Second Now, who remains 9lb higher in the weights than when winning the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup at the Cheltenham Festival in 2019, but returned to winning form in the Grade Two Webster Chase at Navan in March. Slightly worrying is the fact that he was never travelling, in a larger field, when pulled up on his penultimate start at Gowran Park, but he has been considered an ideal National type for some time; trainer Ted Walsh knows what’s required, having won the National with Papillon in 2000.

Beyond the front, Burrows Saint, at 14/1, won the Irish Grand National in 2019 and has been lightly raced in recent seasons. Still only an 8-year-old, he is 12lb higher in the weights in the Grand National, but has a touch of class and shouldn’t be underestimated.

Anyone with even just a passing interest in horse racing is probably aware that Tiger Roll won the Grand National in 2018 and 2019 and was denied the opportunity to complete an unprecedented hat-trick in 2020, when the race was cancelled because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Similarly, the name of Red Rum, who won the National three times, in 1973, 1974 and 1977, has passed into legend.

However, beyond the aforementioned pair, another five – possibly six, or possibly even seven, depending on your point of view – horses have won the Grand National more than once. The Duke won the first two runnings of the Grand Liverpool Steeplechase, which became the Grand National, in 1836 and 1837, but the first ‘official’ running of the National did not take place until 1839. Likewise Poethlyn definitely won the Grand National at Aintree in 1919, but also won the so-called ‘War National’, staged at Gatwick, in 1918. Less contentiously, the other bona fide dual winners of the Grand National were Abd-El-Kader in 1850 and 1851, The Lamb in 1868 and 1871, The Colonel in 1869 and 1870, Manifesto 1897 and 1899 and Reynoldstown in 1935 and 1936.