How to predict the result of the Aintree Grand National using AI!

How to predict the result of the Aintree Grand National using AI!

The Grand National is the one horse race that both ardent fans of the sports of kings and those largely indifferent to it know and love. Who hasn’t taken part in an office sweepstake or scanned through the names of Grand National contenders in the hope that a (sometimes absurd) name will stand out to them and that generous odds will convenientlysit alongside it?

Of course with large fields, and a taxing course with fences known to challenge even the most able, picking the national winner can often feel a bit like finding a needle in a haystack. There are other betting angles to explore too though, such as a place bet, if you feel that a big odds selection may well have what it takes to put up a good performance but might not quite be winner material. That’s the beauty of betting really, you can pool all of your knowledge into a bet that broadly matches what you hope will occur. That’s always been how people make their money in the gambling world, but nowadays there are even more tools to hand that can help you hone your skills further.

I’m of course taking about AI racing tips. Gone are the days of having to manually collate racing info in a task that isn’t far off reading tealeaves. Now you can instead go directly to large sources of useful data and interrogate it directly. With that being the case with AI, it becomes the questions you ask that are most important, and the information you’re then able to extract as result. Even without this ‘questioning’ angle, AI can still analyse data to the point it draws conclusions about the likelihood of an outcome. Think about that in real terms. AI can essentially take a view of the confidence and value of a betting selection, vs the price currently on offer. In the Grand National there are often selections that are 100-1, 200-1, sometimes more and so if you can extract insights that show those odds to be much bigger than they should be, you have a golden opportunity in your hands.

AI in the context of sport and sports betting isn’t the case of completely tearing up the rulebook and starting again, it’s more building on your existing knowledge and strategies and putting yourself in a position of finding value and winning big as result. If you’re already ruled out certain horses, say as out of the running in the national, AI tools can help you narrow the field further and centre in on a strategy that is more likely to reap rewards.

How many horses have won the Grand National more than once?

  • Posted on November 15, 2025
  • /Under Horses

How many horses have won the Grand National more than once? Of course, the most successful horse in the recent history of the Grand National was Tiger Roll, who won back-to-back renewals of the world famous steeplechase in 2018 and 2019, but was denied the chance of a third win by the coronavirus pandemic, in 2020, and by his owner, Michael O’Leary, in 2021 and 2022. Readers of a certain age may also remember – and everyone will almost certainly have heard of – Red Rum, who won the Grand National an unprecedented three times, in 1973, 1974, and 1977.

However, the names of the other multiple winners of the Grand National – of which there are six, seven or eight, depending on the ground rules applied – are probably less familiar. To clarify, The Duke won the first two runnings of the Grand Liverpool Steeplechase, in 1836 and 1837, but the races were subsequently stricken, some historians say erroneously, from the ‘official’ Grand National records. Likewise, Poethyln won the so-called ‘War National’, staged at Gatwick in 1918, and won again when the Grand National returned to Aintree in 1919.

As far as ‘official’ renewals of the Grand National at Aintree are concerned, the first dual winner was Abd-El-Kader, in 1850 and 1851. He was followed by Peter Simple, who had won the Grand National for the first time in 1849, but returned four years later, as a doughty 15-year-old, to do so again. Thereafter, The Lamb (1868 and 1871) and The Colonel (1869 and 1870) won four renewals between them in as many years and, towards the end of the century, the indefatigable Manifesto – who ran in the Grand National a record eight times between 1895 and 1904 – prevailed twice, in 1897 and 1899. Before Red Rum, the last horse to win the Grand National more than once was Reynoldstown, who recorded back-to-back victories in 1935 and 1936; the legendary Golden Miller failed to complete the course on both occasions.

Leighton Aspell

Many of the best National Hunt jockeys of the modern era, including Jonjo O’Neill, John Francome, Peter Scudamore and even Richard Johnson – who’s ridden more winners than anyone else in the history of the sport, apart from Sir Anthony Peter “A.P.” McCoy – have failed to win the Grand National. Not so Leighton Aspell who, unlike those illustrious names, will never be champion jockey, but has won the National not just once, but twice.

 

Aspell first rode in the National, at the age of 27, in 2003 and later admitted that he was “thrilled to bits” to finish second on 40/1 outsider Supreme Glory, 12 lengths behind the winner, Monty’s Pass. He came a cropper at Becher’s Brook, the Chair and Valentine’s Brook in 2004, 2005 and 2006, respectively and, when he pulled up Billyvoddan, who was tailed off at the time, approaching the first open ditch on the second circuit in 2007, his chance of winning the National appeared to be gone forever.

 

Three months later, no longer enjoying racing or going racing, Aspell retired from race riding. However, after working as pupil assistant to Arundel trainer John Dunlop, he began to miss race riding and announced his comeback as a jockey in April, 2009. He didn’t ride in the Grand National until 2011 when, although he completed the course, was beaten the proverbial “country mile” on 66/1 outsider In Compliance, who finished thirteenth of the 19 finishers.

 

However, undeterred, Aspell was back at Aintree three years later, aboard 25/1 chance Pineau De Re, an 11-year-old trained by Dr. Richard Newland. A small, but classy, individual, Pineau De Re made a few jumping errors, but ultimately pulled clear on the run-in to beat Balthazar King by 5 lengths. Aspell said afterwards, “It’s a wonderful day. This is what we do it for.”

 

Lo and behold, Aspell won the Grand National again in 2015, aboard another 25/1 chance, Many Clouds, an 8-year-old trained by Oliver Sherwood. In so doing, he became the first jockey since Brian Fletcher, in 1974 – and just the third since World War II – to win back-to-back Nationals.