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.