Grand National preview: Six Irish horses to consider at Aintree

I Am Maximus (Willie Mullins)

I Am Maximus is 8lb higher in the handicap this year than he was last year, but it is not difficult to argue that he would have won had he been carrying 8lb more 12 months ago.

The virtues of the ride of which he was the beneficiary have been well extolled in the meantime. Paul Townend smuggled him around the inside for four miles and one furlong. The fences are not as fearsome as they once were, the magnitude of the drop on the inside at Becher’s Brook is not a multiple of the magnitude of the drop around the outside that it used to be but, even so, it’s still the brave man’s route. Racing room at a premium.

But Paul Townend always seemed to have room. That’s what the best exponents do. Xavi always seemed to have space in a crowded midfield. There was a little bit of a scare at The Chair, when I Am Maximus was a little bit long and put in a short one, and he did get in tight to the second fence on the second circuit, and he had to be squeezed along for a stride or two after jumping the big ditch. But his jumping over the spruce fences in the main was very good and, rail to your immediate left, his tendency to go to his left was hardly in evidence at all.

WATCH: RELIVE THE CLOSEST GRAND NATIONAL OF ALL TIME!

The 2012 Grand National was the closest in history and winning jockey Daryl Jacob relives his emotions during this fascinating interview complete with thrilling race footage.

He only deviated from his inside run after they had jumped the fourth last fence, in order that he could circumvent the greys Coko Beach and Eldorado Allen, but he was right back on it after they had jumped the third last. Townend went for the inside seam up the run-in too, but it was all getting a bit tight over there as they funnelled towards the Elbow, so he switched outside Minella Indo and Delta Work and, when he did, I Am Maximus took off. He put seven and a half lengths between himself and his rivals by the time he reached the winning line.

He hasn’t troubled the judge in two runs in Grade 1 races this season so far, but you know that Willie Mullins has been training him so that he will be at concert pitch on Grand National day, and the vibes about him in the run-up to the race are strong. Back-to-back wins are not impossible anymore, not since Tiger Roll bridged the 45-year gap back to Red Rum, and I Am Maximus is one of the leading players again this year.

Intense Raffles (Tom Gibney)

Like I Am Maximus, Intense Raffles has been on an upward trajectory since the start of the season, a trajectory that has been designed by his trainer to reach its zenith on Grand National day.

Simon Munir and Isaac Souede’s horse has been a revelation since he joined Tom Gibney. Bred by his owners, the Martaline gelding won a novices’ chase at Fairyhouse on his first run for his new trainer in January last year. Then he went back to Fairyhouse a month later and won again, and he went back there once again in April and landed the Irish Grand National.

Tom Gibney had previous in the Irish Grand National before last year, he had five horses in his yard when he last won race in 2012 with the 10-year-old Lion Na Bearnai. Intense Raffles is different though, just the third six-year-old to win the Irish National in 40 years, a young horse with his whole career stretching out ahead of him.

And there is precedent. I Am Maximus won the Irish National in 2023, the year before he won at Aintree. The 2005 Irish National winner Numbersixvalverde followed up at Aintree the following year. The 1998 Irish National 1-2 Bobbyjo and Papillon between them won the next two renewals of the Aintree Grand National.

Intense Raffles was well beaten in two handicap hurdles at Navan during the winter. In that context, it was important that he run well in the Bobbyjo Chase at Fairyhouse in February. His first run in a chase since his Irish National win, he did, he put up a big performance in finishing second to the Thyestes winner Nick Rockett, beaten three parts of a length, giving him 3lb. He will be in receipt of 12lb from his Bobbyjo Chase conqueror at Aintree.

Intense Raffles’ four chase runs since he arrived in Ireland have been on soft or heavy ground at Fairyhouse. The ground will be better at Aintree, but he is a good-moving horse and he has form on good to soft ground in France. He is fully deserving of his place high the Grand National market.

Stumptown (Gavin Cromwell)

Stumptown is on the Tiger Roll route to the Grand National: Cross-Country Chase in November (or December), Cross-Country Chase in March, Grand National.

Tiger Roll used to get beaten in the Cross-Country Chase at Cheltenham in November or in December, depending on which one he took in that year, possibly because they were handicaps. Then he’d usually win the Cross-Country Chase at Cheltenham in March, possibly because it was a conditions race, possibly because he wasn’t giving bucketloads of weight to his rivals. Then he’d win the Grand National.

Stumptown is different, as is the environment in which he is operating. For starters, he won the Cross-Country Chase in December. He wasn’t giving away bucketloads of weight, but he was still conceding 9lb to the runner-up, 5lb to the third, a stone to the fourth, and he won by as cosy a one-length winning margin as you are likely to see at Cheltenham.

Also, the Cross-Country Chase at the Cheltenham Festival is a handicap now, and he was conceding plenty of weight to all his rivals in March. It wasn’t as cosy as it was in December, it wasn’t really cosy at all, but he dug down deep and stayed on willingly up the hill to win by seven lengths in the end.

His adeptness over the cross-country obstacles at Cheltenham and over the banks at Punchestown will be a big asset to take to the modern-day Grand National course, and he could be one to continue the modern-day march of Gavin Cromwell.

Perceval Legallois (Gavin Cromwell)

Stumptown won’t be alone in carrying the flag of the 2025 Gold Cup-winning trainer into the Grand National, because Vanillier almost made this list, and Perceval Legallois did.

There was a danger that JP McManus’ horse would be the nearly horse of these big handicap chases – favourite for the Galway Plate, favourite for the Kerry National, a little unlucky in the Troytown – but there was also the constant feeling that there was a big one in him if he could put it all together, and he did exactly that in the Paddy Power Chase at Leopardstown’s Christmas Festival (replay below).

The Ballingarry gelding was impressive in winning that day, he came from well back in the field to hit the front on the run-in, staying on strongly up the hill to pull seven lengths clear of his rivals. That race has been working out well in the meantime and, as importantly, Perceval Legallois built on the performance that he put up there when he went back to Leopardstown in early February for the Dublin Racing Festival and, racing off a hurdles mark that was significantly lower than his chase mark, landed a competitive listed handicap hurdle.

The handicap rating of 153 that he has been allotted for the Grand National is 11lb higher than the mark off which he won the Paddy Power Chase, but he has the potential to improve again now over fences with that victory under his belt. An eight-year-old who has raced just nine times over fences, he has the ideal profile for the race these days, he goes well on the ground and the step up in trip could bring about further improvement.

WATCH: Perceval Legallois wins well at Leopardstown

Senior Chief (Henry de Bromhead)

Senior Chief has been flying under the radar a little bit, maybe because he didn’t run at Aintree last year, maybe because he didn’t run at Cheltenham this year, maybe because he has only run once since November. Maybe a combination of all that.

It is over five months since he won the three-mile-one-furlong handicap chase at Cheltenham’s October meeting, when we were still in the final throes of the Flat season and when 2024 was not yet 5/6ths done. Sent off at no bigger than 9/2 for the Coral Trophy at Newbury on the back of that run, he could only finish sixth there, but he kept on at the end of the race to finish 11 lengths behind the winner Kandoo Kid.

Given a break by Henry de Bromhead after that, he didn’t run again until he re-appeared in a handicap hurdle at Naas in February. That run should have brought him forward nicely with the Grand National in mind. He goes well on the ground, and, representing a trainer who fielded the 1-2 in the Grand National in 2021, he is a lightly-raced eight year old who still retains plenty of potential for progression as a staying chaser.

Hewick (John Hanlon)

There could be another significant chapter in the Hewick story yet. The horse who was bought by Shark Hanlon for less than the price of a set of new tyres, who won the Galway Plate and the Bet365 Gold Cup, and who went to America and won the Grand National Hurdle at Far Hills. Then came back and ran in the King George, and won that too.

He didn’t win for a while after the King George, but he wasn’t beaten far in the French Champion Hurdle at Auteuil last May, and he gave Envoi Allen a real scare in the Champion Chase at Down Royal in November.

Hewick didn’t go to Cheltenham this year. Instead, he went to Thurles the day after Gold Cup day and he ran out an impressive winner of the Jimmy Neville Memorial Hurdle. That should have brought him along nicely for the Grand National.

Ten-year-olds don’t win the Grand National these days in the ordinary course of events. Every Grand National winner since 2014 has been seven or eight or nine. But Hewick is not an ordinary 10-year-old. He is down to a handicap rating of 162 now, a King George winner, 8lb lower than his peak, and the ground is coming in his favour. Imagine the celebrations.

Published at 1328 BST on 31/03/25

More from Sporting Life

• Grand National runners
• Grand National free bets
• Racecards
• Fast results
• Full results and free video replays
• Horse racing news
• Horse racing tips
• Horse racing features
• Download our free iOS and Android app
• Football and other sports tips
• Podcasts and video content

Safer gambling

We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.

If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.

Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org.