December 2025

I Am Maximus

admin December 17, 2025

Still only a nine-year-old, I Am Maximus has already run in the Grand National twice, winning by 7½ lengths in 2024 and failing by just 2½ lengths to defy top weight of 11st 12lb in 2025, when outpointed by his stable companion Nick Rockett on the run-in. Victory in 2025 would have made him just the second horse in 186 years to win the Grand National more than once and he is, once again, towards the forefront of the ante-post betting for the 2026 renewal, currently quoted at 20/1 co-favourite of three.

I Am Maximus is owned by John P. McManus and trained by Willie Mullins, both of whom are seeking their fourth win in the Grand National, record-breaking and record-equalling, respectively. As such, while he is already rated 170 and the handicapper will, no doubt, take his latest Aintree form into account when the weights for the Grand National are published in February, he remains one to take very seriously indeed.

The winner of the Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse in 2023, as a seven-year-old, I Am Maximus has spent much of his subsequent career – away from Aintree, that is – competing at Grade 1 level against his more illustrious stable companions Galopin Des Champs and Gaelic Warrior. Reflecting on his defeat in the 2025 Grand National, jockey Paul Townend said, “He ran a huge race. Maybe he’d enjoy a bit more ease in the ground, but I can’t have any excuses really. It was just too hard off of topweight.”

It’s worth noting that I Am Maximus has won four times over fences, all on soft or heavy going, although he did win on good to soft over hurdles and lost little caste in defeat on a similar surface in the 2025 Grand National. Underfoot conditions aside, I Am Maximus may need some assistance from Martin Greenwood, the staying chase handicapper at the British Horseracing Authroity (BHA), if he is to win the Grand National again. Since the turn of the twenty-first century, the highest-rated Grand National was Many Clouds, rated 160, in 2015.

Haiti Couleurs

admin December 17, 2025

Haiti Couleurs has yet to tackle the Grand National proper, but has already won the Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse and may yet contest the 2025 Welsh Grand National at Chepstow over Christmas, with trainer Rebecca Curtis warming to the idea of a return to handicap company for her stable star. Aside from the Irish Grand National, the eight-year-old also won the National Hunt Chase at the Cheltenham Festival in 2025 and made a successful reappearance, in a Pertemps Hurdle Series Qualifier, at Newbury in November.

However, Haiti Couleurs did rather blot his copybook when never travelling, and eventually pulled up, in the Betfair Chase at Haydock on his only subsequent start. Nevertheless, Curtis was keen to put a line through that performance, telling the ‘Racing Post’, “You can hear people say, ‘He’s just a handicapper’, but that’s absolute nonsense; it was nothing to do with ability yesterday, it just wasn’t his day.” Indeed, Haiti Couleurs was subsequently diagnosed with a back injury and, having reportedly responded well to treatment, could take in the Welsh Grand National en route to the Cheltenham Gold Cup or the Grand National proper.

At the time of writing, Haiti Couleurs is top-priced at 50/1 for the Cheltenham Gold Cup and 20/1 co-favourite of three for the Grand National, so it’ll be interesting to see how connections plot the remainder of his campaign. He’s currently rated 154 over fences by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA), so a handicap campaign remains a realistic possibility at this early stage. He has winning form at up to 3 miles and 6 furlongs, on ground ranging from good to heavy, so the extra half a mile or so of the Grand National should hold no terrors for him, whatever the weather on Merseyside in the spring.

Indeed, as an eight-year-old with just six starts over regulation fences to his name, of which he has won four, Haiti Couleurs remains open to any amount of improvement. His handicap mark may need to be protected, but he is admirably tough, jumps neatly and may yet prove to be excellent value at the current odds on offer for the Grand National.

Captain Cody

admin December 17, 2025

A seven-year-old, with just six starts over fences to his name, Captain Cody is currently trading at

20/1 co-favourite of three for the Grand National, alongside stable companion I Am Maximus and Haiti Couleurs. Lightly raced over the larger obstacles he may be, but, having unseated rider towards the end of the first circuit in the National Hunt Chase at the 2025 Cheltenham Festival, he went on to win the Scottish Grand National at Ayr in cosy fashion on his final start of the season. That victory earned him a 10lb rise in the weights, but he made an entirely satisfactory reappearance when third, beaten 9½ lengths, in the Grade 1 Drinmore Novice Chase at Fairyhouse in November.

Ominously, perhaps, trainer Willie Mullins said afterwards, “Captain Cody could make into an Aintree horse or a horse for any of those big handicaps.” Mullins, of course, is chasing a hat-trick in Grand National after victories with I Am Maximus om 2024 and Nick Rockett in 2025 (when he saddled five of the first seven horses home), so it’s fair to say that he’s a better judge than most if what’s required to win the world-famous steeplechase.

Six of the last 10 Grand National winners, including the Mullins-trained pair, were eight-year-olds, so Captain Cody will be in the right age bracket, stats-wise, by the time the 2026 Grand National rolls around. His two wins over hurdles came on heavy going, but he handled good to soft going perfectly well when winning the Scottish Grand National, so should have underfoot conditions to suit at Aintree. Reflecting on his inevitable rise in the weights, owner Vincent Caldwell said, “…he’s a 150 horse now, and we can think and talk about races such as Aintree or those other big National races for next year.”

In the words of Mullins, Captain Cody “was travelling, and really travelling” at the finish of the Scottish Grand National, over four miles, so an extra quarter of a mile an Aintree could conceivably show him in an even better light. He has yet to reappear in the 2025/26 season, but looks one to keep on the right side, whatever connections decide for him.