Grand National Festival 2025: Ben and Conlan's Grand National Tips

My best bet for the Grand National is Perceval Legallois, who at the time of writing this, is sat around the 12/1 mark with most bookmakers after declarations.

Given he has previously not run over 3m5f before, there are a few doubts about this French-bred horse, but I think he has the pedigree to overlook them. Trainer Gavin Cromwell, who also has the favourite Stumptown in this race, has already stated that he cannot tell his three entries apart this season.

In addition to this, Derek Fox, who has won two of the past seven renditions of this race, has stated that he would wish to be riding the 8-year-old if he had the choice to, showing that he believes this horse has the class to deal with the main event.

Looking at the stats, things bode really well for the JP McManus horse, with 8YOs having a good record recently, and his mark of 153 being in what is seen as the sweet spot by many. For me, I think this is my best shout.

My top pick for the illustrious Randox Grand National is, by no surprise, Stumptown. After his masterful performance in the Cross Country Chase at the Cheltenham Festival last month, I find it hard to see a better bet than him in this race.

He rallied valiantly in the final stages and looked to be picking up speed towards the finish, which bodes well for his effort here. Gavin Cromwell will be hoping to pick up his first Grand National win with the gelding out of Laverock, with this arguably being the strongest out of other potential candidates such as Vanillier, who ran well in behind Stumptown last time out, and Perceval Legallois who has Mark Walsh booked aboard for the biggest race of them all.

Age appears to be on his side, with 5 of the last 11 runners being 8 years of age, including last year's winner I Am Maximus. Stumptown’s experience over similar sorts of fences will be of imperative importance, where he has shown his ability time and time again. 

We jump to the 20/1 mark for my next best bet for the Grand National, and I'm taking a look at Hyland, who I think represents another really good chance, whether as a single or E/W selection.

This is Nicky Henderson's best chance in the race this year round, at least according to the market, and I think he could be even shorter on the day, with 20/1 seeming a little high, at the time of writing.

Once again, the gelding was bred in France, and something to take note of, he has run (and won) in big fields before, which shows that he is more than able to cope with the settings of this race.

One of his owners, Paul Humphreys, relayed words from Nico De Boinville (who will ride him at Aintree) to Racing TV last month, "that was the best trial the horse could ever have had for the National," which bodes really well for us, especially considering he stayed on to finish second, given 8 of the past 13 winners of the National have recorded a top two finish in their last race.

At 8YO, trends once again point favourably towards him, and with him being one of the lowest weights in this race, I cannot help but take a look at him.

Behind Stumptown, my next best bet for the Grand National is another from the Gavin Cromwell camp and touched on already, this being Vanillier. This will be his third attempt in this iconic race, where he will be seeking redemption from last year's poor effort, where he finished a lowly 14th having never truly gotten into the race.

However, he is now running off of the same weight as he did when he first attempted the National fences, finishing a tight 2nd to the mesmerising Corach Rambler. Most recently, he finished around 8 lengths in 3rd behind Stumptown in the Cross Country at the Cheltenham Festival, where he nearly made a huge mistake in going down the wrong route.

Despite this, he managed to finish strongly and put in an impressive performance. I expect Gavin Cromwell will think he has a solid chance at keeping the Grand National title on the Emerald Isle for another year, and he has two exceptional talents to do that with.

Another one I particularly like to follow up on their previous outing in this race is Minella Indo, out of the Barry Maloney yard for Henry De Bromhead, and Rachael Blackmore in the saddle.

This wouldn’t be the first time the iconic duo have won the National with a Minella, after seeing stardom in 2021 with Minella Times. The 12-year-old ran in this race last year, visiting for the first time, finishing an 8-lengths third where he was leading at the last.

Surprisingly, he has been allowed 3lb off of his back since that run, which grants him a superb chance to be the first 12-year-old to win this race in over 20 years. 

My final pick of the race is Nick Rockett, who is currently around the 25/1 mark, but some are offering more slightly higher on him, and I'd definitely be looking at this price for the E/W market.

I must admit, I am not the most confident in this selection, however, I still think that the Willie Mullins horse has a nice chance in this race. Speaking after I Am Maximus' win last year, he spoke about the importance of his Bobbyjo Chase win at Fairyhouse, and this year's winner was the Rockett himself, though it was not as impressive, even if he did win 25 seconds faster (over better ground, admittedly).

Another race of notice was the Paddy Power Chase in December, which my favourite Perceval Legallois won. However, he ran well on that day and was hampered in that race, so I think we can take positives there.

He comes into this race two pounds heavier than I Am Maximus did last year, after a similar journey, which may go against him, but I think he could be involved at the end of the race, definitely.

Of course, this race is never as simple as simply picking an outright favourite, anybody who watches the National religiously will tell you that. So, my longshot for this race is none other than the Willie Mullins-trained Meetingofthewaters.

The 8-year-old ran in this race last year in only his sixth run over fences, and put in a superb display to finish 7th, just short of 16 lengths behind the eventual winner. He has been treated very kindly by the handicapper, having dropped a pound in weight since that run.

His form coming into this race isn’t too pretty to look at, but with an extra year of experience under his belt, the clear ability to stay the slog of a trip, and running off 10st7lb where 3 of the last 4 winners of this race have ran off lighter than 10st10lb, he gives the Mullins camp an excellent chance of picking up back-to-back Grand National victories.