Grand National festival: how to pick the winner of the world-famous race

Twenty years ago Aintree was all about the Grand National, with the rest of the action a bit after the lord mayor’s show. Cheltenham was the place where everyone wanted to run, and there were only four Grade 1s across Aintree’s three days.

Nowadays the National still very much dwarfs the undercard, but in Britain at least, Aintree seems to be taking on greater importance. There are ten Grade 1s rather than four and, with Ireland now so dominant at Cheltenham, trainers are bypassing the festival with a lot of their stars.

Even so, Ireland still had five winners even with the small team they sent over last season, while in the National it was utter domination for the visitors with ten of the first 11 home.