The world’s most famous race is back! At 4pm Saturday, 34 runners will take to the Aintree course for the Grand National – with trainer Willie Mullins going for three wins in a row. Here is your ultimate guide to the race – with every runner rated and your sweepstake. First, Daily Mail Sport’s DOMINIC KING gives you the lowdown…
Willie Mullins has become the man with the Midas touch at Aintree, so it is amazing to think how his relationship with the world’s greatest race began.
Mullins has won the Randox Grand National three times, including the last two renewals with I Am Maximus, the 7-1 favourite in 2024, and 33-1 outsider Nick Rockett 12 months ago ridden by his son, Patrick.
What happened last year made for the most incredible result of all time. Mullins is based in Closutton, County Carlow but has been Great Britain’s champion jumps trainer for the last two years — and the most recent title was won on the back of a spectacular April day in Liverpool.
Nick Rockett left Mullins in tears as he crossed the line but, incredibly, he was followed home by stablemates I Am Maximus and Grangeclare West, giving him an unprecedented 1-2-3; for good measure Meetingofthewaters (fifth) and Minella Cocooner (seventh) sealed a demolition for the yard.
Appreciate it was the sixth Mullins runner in the 34-strong field but he was brought down in a melee. That again confirmed to the 69-year-old how fate can play a part, not that he needed any lessons: his first four runners at Aintree all failed to complete.
I Am Maximus, seen winning the 2024 Grand National under Paul Townend, is the favourite to triumph at Aintree
Micko’s Dream (2000) was well-fancied when he fell at the first fence; Alexander Banquet unseated at the sixth in 2002 then came back two years later and fell at the 18th — the same year, Hedgehunter was leading at the final obstacle before he took a tumble.
Such is Mullins’s determination to learn from mistakes, Hedgehunter returned a year later and ran his rivals ragged. Since then, he has been fascinated by the idea of winning at Aintree and as the strength of his stable has improved, so have his results.
‘Aintree has grown into a huge week and we’ve had a beano there the last couple of years,’ Mullins told me at his stables recently. ‘Last year, I never took my eyes off Patrick from the Canal Turn. All the while I was thinking about my (late) mother and father and them not being here to see it.
‘But it’s Aintree and you never think it will happen until it does. The year before (2024) we had eight runners and I thought to myself: “Any of these could win and they could easily finish in the first seven or eight” — only one did, I Am Maximus, the rest were nowhere.’
It is hard to envisage a situation in which any of the Mullins battalion will be among the also-rans this time. Aside from sending I Am Maximus back into battle, he also runs Spanish Harlem, Lecky Watson, Champ Kiely, High Class Hero, Captain Cody and Quai De Bourbon. The eighth Mullins runner will be Grangeclare West, the mount of his son. The gelding, owned by British breeders Cheveley Park Stud, has exceptional claims.
Trainer Willie Mullins is hoping for a third straight victory after Nick Rockett won last year – although the defending champion was declared a non-runner the 2026 race
‘I watched my first Grand National in 1976 and in 1977 I watched Red Rum win his third National,’ said Richard Thompson, director of Cheveley Park Stud. ‘It would be a dream to see our colours win.’
It would be a dream, too, for Willie Mullins, who is trying to emulate Dr Vincent O’Brien, the only man to saddle three straight National winners (1953, 1954, 1955). He has become a master at writing his own history.
And now get involved in our sweepstake…
Ahead of this year’s race at Aintree, we’ve got you covered if you and your friends want to get involved in the much-anticipated event, thanks to Daily Mail Sport’s sweepstake kit.
Simply print out our sheet, then cut the names of the horses into individual pieces of paper, fold them and put them into a hat ahead of Saturday’s race.
Download the checklist of how to organise your sweepstake here
Download your sweepstake cutout here
