The Grand National is a highlight of the British sporting calendar, with 34 horses lining up to take on the iconic Aintree fences before a winner is crowned, and your Mirror has an incredible line up for this huge event! PLUS you’ll find a £2 FREE shop bet inside your paper EVERY day of the festival – so pick a winner with your Daily Mirror this Aintree!
It is a magnificent spectacle, with the Norway spruce fences being an iconic image in the sport. There is also the small matter of a £1million prize fund up for grabs, with £500,000 on offer for the winner, making it a potentially lucrative day out for owners and trainers. Winning is not an easy task, however, and there is lots of competition for the crown of Grand National winner.
Punters were in clover last year when I Am Maximus, the Willie Mullins-trained 7-1 joint favourite, won in the JP McManus silks. Having run only two more races since he is the same odds to triumph again at Aintree. He’s not the favourite though, with Intense Raffles, winner of the Irish Grand National in 2024, top of the bookies’ lists.
If you work your way down the list of declared runners there are several horses who will also be fancied such as Stumptown, winner of the Cross-Country Chase at Cheltenham who is taking the same route to Aintree as two-time National winner Tiger Roll.
Cult horse Hewick, who cost just £800 and has won more than £750,000, will be another likely to be pushing for favouritism near the 4pm off-time. There are more sentimental stories in the field as well, with Hyland currently a 20-1 chance to end trainer Nicky Henderson’s 45 year wait for a Grand National winner.
With tales throughout, and it is sure to be a fascinating race around the 30 fences at Aintree on Saturday April 5, 2025.
Thursday April 3, and Friday April 4: 12 packed pages of racing content from Day One and Two of the festival
Saturday April 5: Celebrate Grand National Saturday with SIXTEEN pages of epic tips, features and content from your trusted Mirror pundits
FREE: Shop bets with William Hill inside your paper on Thursday, Friday, AND Grand National Saturday
Join our free newsletter for Mirror racing fans – Punters Club! Get insights and tips from Sign up here.
(Form not loading? Click here to sign up. Sign up 25+ only. Terms and conditions apply, see form above for details.)
The Punters Club offers members news, tips and analysis from our leading writers during Aintree and beyond, PLUS members will also get access to some fantastic free ticket offers and exclusive competitions.
You’ll get all this delivered straight to your email inbox – and best of all our club is FREE!
At Reach and across our entities we and our partners use information collected through cookies and other identifiers from your device to improve experience on our site, analyse how it is used and to show personalised advertising. You can opt out of the sale or sharing of your data, at any time clicking the “Do Not Sell or Share my Data” button at the bottom of the webpage. Please note that your preferences are browser specific. Use of our website and any of our services represents your acceptance of the use of cookies and consent to the practices described in our Privacy Notice and Cookie Notice.