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Monty’s Star

admin March 2, 2026

Trained by Henry de Bromhead in Knockeen, County Waterford, Monty’s Star has failed to win a race since beating Three Card Brag by five-and-a-half lengths in a beginners’ chase at Punchestown on New Year’s Eve 2023, but is nonetheless currently trading as 20/1 joint-fifth favourite for the 2026 Grand National. That said, all bar two of his nine starts since have come at Grade 1 level, including the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase at the 2024 Cheltenham Festival and the Cheltenham Gold Cup itself in 2025.

Off a handicap mark off 159, he is currently twelfth on the list for the Grand National, in which he is set to carry 11st 3lb, so he is effectively guaranteed a run if connections decide to take that route. However, Henry de Bromhead has already expressed his displeasure with the British handicapper for raising the nine-year-old 2lb in the weights for finishing sixth, beaten 25½ lengths, in the Irish Gold Cup at Leopardstown on February 2, 2026. He said, “I can’t understand how he went up 2lbs, but there you go. Normally when they are rated over 150 they leave them on the same as their Irish mark, but this time they haven’t.”

Monty’s Star is also entered in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, on March 13, 2016, for which he is currently trading at 66/1, in a place, ante-post. Ominously, for ante-post punters, De Bromhead has already said, “I would imagine he would do one or the other [the Cheltenham Gold Cup or the Grand National]; I wouldn’t think he’d do both.”

Consequently, it is difficult to advise anything other than a waiting brief as far as Monty’s Star is concerned. Several bookmakers offer a non-runner, no bet concession on the Grand National, but at different times and, typically, not months in advance. Even if he does take his chance at Aintree, he has yet to win beyond three miles, has won just two of his 15 starts under Rules and, if Henry de Bromhead is any judge, is hardly attractively handicapped. On balance, at the odds on offer, he looks best left alone.

Panic Attack

admin March 2, 2026

By Canford Cliffs out of a mare by Galileo, Panic Attack is bred to be a top-class Flat horse, but began her racing career, as a four-year-old, with Willie Mullins, before joining David Pipe and subsequently her current trainer, Dan Skelton. Her form figures since joining Skelton in November 2024 read 3312-111 and, since winning a mares’ handicap chase at Windsor on January 17, 2025, she has officially improved 22lb over fences. As the Grand National weights stand, she is set to carry 10st 5lb, which means that she needs a dozen horses above her to come out to make the cut on April 11, 2026.

That caveat aside, even as a 10-year-old, she appears to have found another jolt of improvement in recent months, which is reflected in her market position as 20/1 joint-fifth favourite for the Grand National. Panic Attack began her 2025/26 campaign in the Paddy Power Gold Cup at Cheltenham, which she won, going away, by four lengths. Raised 4lb for that success, two weeks later she completed a notable early-season double by readily winning the Coral Gold Cup (formerly the Hennessy Gold Cup) at Newbury by six-and-a-half lengths. She completed a hat-trick when cantering to a facile, 14-length success in a Listed mares’ chase back at Newbury in January 2026, jumping well to justify prohibitive odds of 1/4.

Panic Attack has no experience of the Grand National fences but, having tackled the stiff fences at Cheltenham and Newbury with aplomb, should not be inconvenienced by the idiosyncratic obstacles at Aintree. Most of her winning form has come with a degree of cut in the ground, so she should be fine going-wise. More of a concern, perhaps, is the fact that, in 177 runnings so far, just 13 mares have won the Grand National and the last of them, Nickel Coin, beat just two other finishers in a calamitous renewal way back in 1951. Nevertheless, Panic Attack may not have finished improving yet and, if she does make the cut, could make her current odds look very good value indeed. Sketon said of her, “If we fancy having a go at the mares’ chase at the Cheltenham Festival then we might, but our sights are firmly set on the Grand National.”

Grangeclare West

admin March 2, 2026

Owned by Cheveley Park Stud and trained by Willie Mullins, Grangeclare West already has Grand National experience, having finished an arguably unlucky third behind stable companions Nick Rockett and I Am Maximus in 2025. On that occasion, a mistake at the final fence did not aid his chance, but was still only beaten three lengths by the winner so, despite a 3lb higher mark in 2026, looks to have a realistic chance of going two places better. The bookmakers clearly think so because, at the time of writing, he is a top-priced 12/1 joint-second favourite for the world famous steeplechase.

Grangeclare West, now a 10-year-old, did his Aintree prospects no harm when winning his first race for over two years, the Bobbyjo Chase at Fairyhouse on February 26, 2026. That race was won by the last two Grand National winners, Nick Rockett and I Am Maximus, and he won cosily enough, by five-and-a-half lengths, despite another significant mistake at the final fence. His victory, achieved on heavy going, also laid to rest any qualms about his ability to cope if underfoot conditions become testing at Aintree on Grand National Day. Winning jockey Paul Townend said afterwards, “He’s a class animal. The ground was my concern, but it’s loose and he handled it as well as any of them.”

From a handicapping perspective, Grangeclare West is 1lb better off with the 2025 winner, Nick Rockett, 2lb worse off with the second, I Am Maximus, and 2lb better off with fourth, Iroko, who finished four-and-a-half lengths behind him. All six of his victories under Rules have come on going officially described as ‘yielding’ or softer but, granted the vagaries of the British spring and the watering policy at Aintree, he should be in his element by the time April 11, 2026 rolls around.

Willie Mullins, who saddled five of the first seven horses home in the 2025 Grand National, is once again mob-handed in 2026, with no fewer than 15 entries at the latest declaration stage. Not all of them are guaranteed a place in the starting line-up, but it will be interesting to see which of them is the choice of stable jockey Paul Townend.

Tiger Roll

admin December 19, 2025

Owned by Gigginstown House Stud, under the auspices of Michael O’Leary, and trained by Gordon Elliott in Longwood, County Meath, Tiger Roll is the most famous Grand National horse of recent years, having recorded back-to-back victories in the renowned steeplechase in 2018 and 2019. His second success made him just the sixth horse in history, and the first since the legendary Red Rum, back in 1974, to win the Grand National more than once.

On the first occasion, having won the Cross Country Chase at the Cheltenham Festival, he was sent off 10/1 joint second-favourite and, despite taking a six-length lead halfway up the run-in, was ultimately all out to hold the rallying Pleasant Company by a head. On the second, following another facile victory in the Cross Country Chase, he was reunited with Davy Russell, who won on him in 2018, and sent off favourite to follow up, despite a 9lb rise in the weights. Despite stumbling at Valentine’s Brook on the second circuit, and the following fence, Tiger Roll soon recovered, breezed into the lead between the final two fences and was always holding his nearest pursuer, Magic Of Light, eventually winning by 2¾ lengths.

Tiger Roll was denied the opportunity to attempt an unprecedented hat-trick in the Grand National when the race was cancelled, due to the coronavirus pandemic, in 2020. The following year, O’Leary took exception to British Horseracing Authority (BHA) handicapper Martin Greenwood raising Tiger Roll 7lb for his 2019 performance and withdrew him from the Grand National, citing an “unfair weight burden”. O’Leary did so again in 2022, citing a “ridiculous handicap rating”, so Tiger Roll never ran in the Grand National again.

Nevertheless, he finished his career having won 13 of his 45 races over hurdles and fences, including the Grand National twice, the Triumph Hurdle, the National Hunt Chase and the Cross Country Chase three times. Following his retirement in March 2022, having been beaten by another Gigginstown-owned horse, Delta Work, in the Cross Country Chase, Russell said of Tiger Roll, “He went down fighting. Sure, he is fantastic.”

Mon Mome

admin December 19, 2025

In the 186-year history of the Grand National, just five winners have been returned at treble-digit odds and the most recent of them was Mon Mome, trained by Venetia Williams and ridden by Liam Treadwell, in 2009. However, unlike some of the out-and-out no-hopers, such as Tipperary Tim (1928) and Foinavon (1967), who fully deserved to be sent off at 100/1 and were the beneficiaries of calamitous accidents, Mon Mome had form in the book that suggested his starting price was overly-generous.

Sixth in what is now the Ultima Handicap Chase at the Cheltenham Festival, eighth in the Grand National and ninth in the Scottish Grand National in 2008, Mon Mome had won at Cheltenham on his second start back that autumn, as the result of which he was sent off favourite for the Welsh Grand National over Christmas. He failed to trouble the judge in that prestigious contest, as he did in the Grand National Trial at Haydock and the Midlands Grand National at Uttoxeter, and was unconsidered as a Grand National prospect.

Nevertheless, despite what was, at the time, a career-high mark of 148, there was no fluke about his second attempt over the National fences. Held up early, he made steady headway towards the end of the first circuit, worked his way into contention approaching the second-last fence and led narrowly over the final fence. The 2008 winner, Comply Or Die, who was conceding 6lb, was marginally quicker away from the final obstacle, but Mon Mome soon re-took the lead and, with Treadwell (who was having his first ride in the National) riding like a man possessed, drew right away on the run-in to win by 12 lengths. Comply Or Die held second, 1¼ lengths ahead of My Will, with State Of Play fourth, a further 4½ lengths away.

“How can you ever expect that?” said Williams afterwards, adding, “It’s the race that everyone wants to win. That’s known all over the world, but you always assume that it’s out of reach.” Mon Mome ran in the Grand National twice more, falling five from home behind Don’t Push It in 2010 and being pulled up at Becher’s Brook on the second circuit behind Neptune Collonges in 2011.