Sporting Life
Handicap Hints

Handicap Hints: Who are the main British hopes in the 2026 Randox Grand National?

By Matt Brocklebank
Horse Racing
Wed April 01, 2026 · 4h ago

Matt Brocklebank shines a light on the main British contenders in this year's Randox Grand National, which merely underlines the size of the task they face.

The Randox Grand National hasn’t been much fun for the ‘home’ team in recent years.

Since Many Clouds led in what now seems a quite remarkable 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 for English-trained horses in the 2015 edition, the scoreline reads Ireland 7-2 Scotland.

Last April Irish yards were responsible for the first three to finish, and it was the first four the year before that. When Corach Rambler showed his stamina and class to provide Kinross-based Lucinda Russell with her second triumph in the famous race from north of the border in 2023, he was closely followed home by six runners from across the Irish Sea.

Despite all of this, there has been a general sense of renewed optimism among the British trainers this term. Paul Nicholls was typically vocal earlier in the year when suggesting momentum was swinging back “towards us”, Ben Pauling has proudly talked the talk and also walked the walk to some extent with several big-race victories including The Jukebox Man in the King George and Meetmebythesea at Cheltenham more recently.

Nicky - “we have a lot of good horses over here” - Henderson rattled off three Festival winners to finally put 2024’s relatively miserable week in Prestbury Park well behind him, while leading the ‘Brit Pack’ from flag-fall this campaign has been champion trainer-elect Dan Skelton, who looks to have finally wrestled the mantle from Willie Mullins, largely through weight of numbers and bagging lots of the valuable handicaps along the way.

British trainers also won all the handicap chases at the Cheltenham Festival this time, don't forget, but what chance the most valuable prize of its type stays on these shores next week?

If you’re feeling brave and cross off all the Irish horses, focus on the current top-40 (34 will run, with six reserves confirmed at final declaration stage next Wednesday), then you’re left with 11 from England plus arguably one of the most fascinating non-Irish runners in the field, Haiti Couleurs for Pembrokeshire trainer Rebecca Curtis.

One of five British candidates priced at 20/1 or shorter in the antepost lists, Haiti Couleurs has a particularly strong CV and will be bidding to follow in the footsteps of Rhyme ‘n’ Reason, Bobbyjo, Numbersixvalverde and I Am Maximus, who also won the Irish equivalent at Fairyhouse during their careers.

The nine-year-old is something of a ‘National’ specialist, having also won this season’s Coral Welsh Grand National, and his record in handicap chases of any description reads 211111.

He failed to fire when just 6/1 for the Gold Cup but had also been pulled-up in Grade 1 company at Haydock before bouncing back at Chepstow over Christmas, and any further rain in the build-up would no doubt make him a popular pick under champion jockey Sean Bowen.

Some of the main British hopes in the 2026 Grand National

The Real Whacker, Marble Sands and Beauport are all triple-figure prices on account of being out of form and/or having fairly exposed profiles, while The Skelton-trained mare Panic Attack is the same age as that trio but has fewer miles on the clock, with a fine strike-rate of 5-9 over fences to boot.

She’s won two major handicap pots already this season which is obviously a blessing and a curse in terms of her Aintree prospects, as she’s sneaking in at number 34 on the list but is also now fully 12lb higher in the weights than when successful in the Paddy Power Gold Cup at the beginning of the year.

Similar sentiments apply to Pauling’s Twig, who landed a veterans’ handicap race at Sandown in November before edging out Mr Vango in the Becher Chase the following month. He’s crept up another 3lb in the ratings for the latest triumph but still needs a few drop-outs to make the cut, while the Sara Bradstock-trained Becher runner-up has failed to finish in two subsequent starts, backing out of things alarmingly quickly before jumping four-out in last month’s Eider at Newcastle.

Which leaves us with three, all owned by JP McManus, two of which are trained by Oliver Greenall and Josh Guerriero. The G&G duo of Iroko and Jagwar are poles apart in terms of character, according to their handlers, although each has something to recommend them on paper and the latter might even end up winning the battle for favouritism which looks quite an interesting little heat in itself.

Returning National fourth Iroko is a real grinder of a chaser and would hold excellent claims of hitting the frame again if bouncing back from his low-key Ultima effort (scoped dirty the following day) at Cheltenham, while Jagwar sees himself as more of a glider but still tries to take the odd fence with him, which may not be quite so detrimental in a modern-day National but hardly fills you with confidence.

Jagwar is officially 5lb well-in and technically one of the best-handicapped horses inside the top 34, while the Jonjo and A J O’Neill-trained Johnnywho, who may just have wanted it that bit more than Jagwar in the dying strides of the Ultima, is officially 6lb to the good in relation to his mark for future assignments but, like Twig, is another who needs some luck to make the cut as number 36 as this stand.

Come to think of it, I’ve refreshed the webpage and unwittingly un-crossed off all 27 of the Irish horses currently inside the top-40. Best of British to the lot of them!

Published at 09:35 BST on 01/04/26

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