The 2018 Grand National – Weights

Excitement is continuing to build ahead of the inaugural running of the Grand National. The race dates back to 1839 just showing the history behind the race. With estimated viewing figures of around 500 to 600 million this shows it is one of the most popular single sporting events in the world. The race is the ultimate test of both horse and rider with the 30 testing fences and extreme 4 mile plus distance.

This has resulted in winners of the past being made National hero’s following success and none more so than Red Rum. He became the first and only three time winner of the race and pushed the National to where it is today. A true legend of the sport. Check out the infographic below which covers the changes to the weights and the leading form contenders in the 2018 contest.

Ahead of the 2018 running of the race many punters will be looking for the top Grand National betting offers out now. One horse that is as genuine as they come and always runs his race is the 10 year old, The Last Samuri. The Kim Bailey trained horse will be running off a nice racing weight so must have a very good each way chance considering his past performances in the race. He first ran in the Grand National back in 2016 and jumping the last looked set to land the spoils only to be outstayed by the Irish horse, Rule the World. He did again contest last year’s race but was running off top weight and never got into a nice rhythm and finished a disappointing 16th.

The Last Samuri returned this season in top form and has put in four decent performances including in the Becher Chase back in December. This was again over the famous Aintree fences where he had to give 6lb to Blaklion and was the only horse to make it a race although being beaten 9 lengths in the end. This was another indicator of the horses liking to the course which is always an extremely important factor to take into account at Aintree. His most recent performance was in the Cross Country Chase at the Cheltenham festival where he was heavily backed into 11/4 favourite on the off and travelled well throughout. However he came up against a resurgent in form Tiger Roll but stayed on well for a promising 3rd. He is likely to run a solid race again in the National and must be one of the top e/w bets heading into the contest.