The Grand National is the biggest event of the British racing calendar, with 40 horses taking to the iconic Aintree fences over the course of 4m 2.5f.
The winner of the steeplechase will receive a £500,000 share of the £1 million prize pot, but it is not a simple race to win with 16 fences to navigate - 14 of which are jumped twice - before a victor emerges.
The race is a handicap event, which means each horse is rated beforehand and weighted accordingly so as to ensure a level playing field. This further complicates the betting market and makes the race the most eagerly anticipated in the National Hunt calendar.
However, there is help at hand in the form of the GrandNational.org.uk supercomputer, which has predicted that 66/1 shot Enjoy D’Allen will be ridden to glory by jockey Simon Torrens in the race at 5:15pm on Saturday. This has been determined by analysing all results of the race from its inception in 1839 to gather trends and build a profile of a potential winner.
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The 'supercomputer' has found that the most common profile of race winner is a nine-year-old horse with an owner named John. This leads us directly to Enjoy D’Allen, who is nine years old and whose owner is John Patrick McManus, otherwise known as JP, one of the most recognisable owners in the sport.
The computer also determined that the race winner most often came from having odds of 20/1 before the race, which means that this could be a riskier bet at 66/1. It was also found that, historically, jockeys named John (11) or Tommy (11) have the most wins.
In addition, the handicaps were also taken into account, finding that a horse with a handicap of 10st 7lbs typically wins. In 2023’s field, Diol Ker and Minella Trump – both aged nine – whilst not exactly matching, come closest with a handicap of 10-8 and 10-6 respectively.
A spokesperson for GrandNational.org.uk said: “Our research shows that historically, nine-year old horses, with an owner named John, race best in the Grand National, making Enjoy D’allen a strong pick, despite being priced at 80/1 (now 66/1).
“The historical traits of previous horses can be worth considering when having a flutter on the Grand National. This typically goes against the bookmaker’s favourites, so will Enjoy D’allen – and our Supercomputer – beat the bookies? We’ll find out very soon.”
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