By Sean McDiarmind
The Grand National 2018 will take place on April 12th at Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool, England. The three-day horse racing festival is the most valuable horse race in Europe. The 2017 event had a prize purse of £1 million and this year’s event could exceed the previous total.
The Grand National is always a major event on the European horse racing calendar. It takes place just after the Cheltenham Festival during a busy time of the year for trainers, jockeys and of course, horses.
The race itself is a four-mile handicap steeple chase. The horses competing in the Grand National must make two laps of the Aintree Racecourse circuit while leaping over 30 fences.
The Grand National 2018
The Grand National 2018 is just around the corner. As the build-up to the event continues, it was announced that 90 horses are still being considered for this year’s race. The latest forfeit stage subtracted 14 horses from the field, but a large number of possible runners are still in contention.
This year’s odds on favourite is Total Recall. Trained by famed Irish horse trainer Willie Mullins, Total Recall is atop of the odds chart. Total Recall has three career chase and three career hurdle wins, and many punter will be back the horse at Aintree.
Mullin’s Total Recall isn’t the only favourite in the build-up to Aintree. Blaklion will revival the horse in both odds and position on the track. Trained by Nigel Twiston-Davies, Blaklion is available at 10/1 from a number of great sportsbooks like William Hill Online; Total Recall is available for the same great price. For more betting odds and offers on the Grand National 2018, check this page to find more info and for key trends to unlocking a win at Aintree.
Grand National 2018 – Build-up
The horses’ preparing for the Grand National 2018 would typically be racing at the event’s build-up races. However, the snowy, freezing weather currently engulfing the United Kingdom has prevented that from taking place. Some trainers have their horses on limited training schedules and only working out indoors.
Four major horse races – The At The Race Grimthorpe Handicap Chase at Doncaster, the Listed totepoolliveinfo.com Premier Chase and also the Elite Racing Club Supporting Greatwood Veterans’ Handicap Chase and Greatwood Gold Cup Handicap Chase at Newbury have all been cancelled due to the weather conditions.
Trainers have had to change some of their plans due to the cancelations. The weather has left numerous trainers looking for alternative preparation races as tracks around the UK have called off events. The winter weather is expected to subside soon, but a lack of full preparation could affect the horses this year. There is the chance that some of the horse races could be re-scheduled to give trainers, jockeys and horses a proper build-up.
All four horse races would have been key build-up races for the 90 hopefuls for the Grand National 2018. The races’ cancelling just six weeks before the Grand Nationals has left question marks around just how ready some of the field will be when the festival emerges from the stalls.