![I Am Maximus wins the 2024 Grand National at Aintree](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/racing/2024/04/13/TELEMMGLPICT000373789715_17130223512140_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqEHRiNy18uGqK2o2EOlRjOSWQd_P2MIpZZvnl5LftWFo.jpeg?imwidth=680)
I Am Maximus wins 2024 Grand National to secure Willie Mullins’s Gold Cup-National double
![I Am Maximus wins the 2024 Grand National at Aintree](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/racing/2024/04/13/TELEMMGLPICT000373789715_17130223512140_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqEHRiNy18uGqK2o2EOlRjOSWQd_P2MIpZZvnl5LftWFo.jpeg?imwidth=680)
It was 13th time lucky for Paul Townend as he steered I Am Maximus home with an exemplary ride to put his and trainer Willie Mullins’ mark on Grand National history.
For the first time since 2002, a jockey who won the Cheltenham Gold Cup followed up by winning the big one at Aintree in the same year.
“Last year I came third [in the National], which was my best result,” said Townend. “Now this. It’s brilliant, it’s a unique race, what you grow up watching and wanting to do.”
- The finishers and fallers: full race results from the 2024 Grand National
This was a race of reduced numbers, foreshortened at the start to prevent horses arriving at the first fence overexcited. The restricted field of 34 was further reduced to 32 by two non-runners, Chambard and Run Wild Fred, to leave the smallest number of entries for a quarter of a century.
And the safety measures seemed to work: this was the first National since 2018 not to precipitate an equine fatality. Indeed there was only one faller: Corach Rambler, last year’s winner and this year’s co-favourite, which hit the turf while loose as it negotiated the second fence, having unseated 2023’s winning jockey Davy Russell at the first.
Townend was aboard the other co-favourite. Not that you would have realised that in the early stages. Riding the horse from the Willie Mullins stable, owned by the serial Irish winner JP McManus, Townend bided his time. For much of the first loop of Aintree’s course, the French horse Glengouly led the way. I Am Maximus was tucked in on the inside, keeping his pace in reserve. At the Chair on the first lap he stumbled.
“I thought he’d let Paul out over his ears,” said Mullins. “Paul told me afterwards he was only doing enough to get over the fences, and he clipped a couple of others too. It’s probably the way to do Aintree rather than big extravagant jumps that sap energy. But I admit I was worried.”
Townend, however, quickly regained control. “He made that mistake at the Chair, which slowed him down,” he explained. “I was anxious not to rush him back in.”
And indeed, even as the denouement approached, the horse was still nowhere near the front. He jumped the final fence with five horses ahead of him, then, as he took the Elbow, as the course bends round to the winning straight, he was in third place. That is when the horse applied the afterburners, easing away to a significant victory by seven and a half lengths.
“Not too many quicken up at the Elbow and hit the line,” said Townend. “We knew the engine was in there. It was a huge performance.”
One which had Mullins immediately thinking of the future.
“He’s a very quirky horse,” he said. “One day he’ll jump left, the next he’ll go right; you never know what he can do. But I think there’s more. That race showed us how good he is. The Gold Cup next year is his next objective. And he has the class to win it, this fellow.”
For Mullins himself though there are more pressing ambitions. After his hugely successful Cheltenham, this win has put him in pole position to collect the British Trainers’ Championship by delivering the most prize money of any stable across the jump racing season.
“I’d love to win the trainer’s championship,” he said. “It’s something different to do. Much as I’d like to win it, all my owners would like me to win it too.”
Were he to win the title – and after this meeting he is £40,000 ahead in the race – he would be the first Irish trainer to do so since Vincent O’Brien in 1954. It would be unwise to bet against him doing it.
I Am Maximus wins the 2024 Grand National, as it happened
Congratulations
go to Willie Mullins and Paul Townend. A nicely timed run on I Am Maximus to give JP McManus his third National. The changes to the race - reducing the size of the fences and the number of runners - made it that there were lots in contention coming to the last. The experts will have their views I am sure but I guess it reduces the random factor slightly? Maybe makes it less likely that you get a fairytale? Obviously it is good that the event is safer. Marcus Armytage will explain all in his report above I am sure. Thanks for following with us and hope you enjoyed the day.
Meanwhile
Gordon Elliott’s promising Found A Fifty has won the Maghull Novices’ Chase (Grade 1) over two miles. The horse was second in The Arkle, well beaten by Willie’s Gaelic Warrior that day.
Found A Fifty headed Master Chewy on the line here at Aintree. That Arkle form looks strong then: Il Etait Temps (third in Arkle) won the Manifesto Novices’ Chase at this same meeting. Master Chewy had been going well at Cheltenham but fell.
Jockeys to win Gold Cup and National in the same year
Ben Rumsby our man with his nose in the record books.
2024 Paul Townend
2002 Jim Culloty
1976 John Burke
1975 Tommy Carberry (Carberry also won the Irish National that year, the only jockey to do the Treble).
1962 Fred Winter
1934 Gerry Wilson
1930 Tommy Cullinan
Patient Townend delivers
That’s how to win the Grand National. Biding his time, waiting till the last, letting others exhaust themselves in the dash, Paul Townend made no attempt to take the lead aboard I Am Maximus until after the final fence had been cleared. And then, after the Elbow, he eased away down the finishing straight, delivering a double of Cheltenham Gold Cup and Grand National for himself and his trainer Willie Mullins.
This was a foreshortened race with a reduced field. But even though there were six fewer entrants - and also two late non-runners - that did not mean there was no chaos round the course. Indeed last year’s winner Corah Rambler unseated his rider at the very first fence, before falling at the second. For a while Glengouly seemed to have the race in check, leading for well over three quarters of the course. But then he too fell, and everything was open. And there, waiting for his moment, was Townend and I Am Maximus. Maybe not as romantic as a 100-1 outsider, maybe not as unexpected as a horse that trained on Lancashire beaches, but this was some race by the world’s leading jump racing operation, the Manchester City of the sport.
I Am Maximus wins the Grand National
Superbly timed run from Paul Townend to win in the JP McManus colours. Willie Mullins the winning trainer.
“Oh my God. So many horses had chances, what a spectacle,” says AP McCoy.
Rachael Blackmore looked like she had got it at the Elbow.
Aintree 4.00
1 I Am Maximus (P Townend) 7-1 Jt Fav
2 Delta Work (J W Kennedy) 28-1
3 Minella Indo (Rachael Blackmore) 28-1
4 Galvin (Sam Ewing) 40-1 32 ran
5 Kitty’s Light
Also: 7-1 Jt Fav Limerick Lace
Non Runners: 19, 33
CSF: £199.42 Tricast: £5229.52
Experts mark your card
Here is who our racing correspondent and others think you should back. Over to you, Marcus.
Having been a big fan of I Am Maximus in the build-up to the the 176th Randox Grand National I have, rightly or wrongly, deserted him late on. He is a skinny price, has his own way of doing things but, above all, he has 11st 6lbs and, though he will love the testing conditions, I have a feeling this will be a National for the lightweights.
His stable companion, Meetingofthewaters, has a modern National profile of rapidly improving chaser, good form and a good weight but I keep being drawn back to Latenightpass who combines course form, good winter form winning a cross-country chase at Cheltenham, and a heart-warming story.
It may be his trainer Tom Ellis’s first runner as a professional trainer but he is no mug having been champion point-to-point trainer five times while his wife, Gina Andrews, is arguably more experienced than a lot of her professional counterparts.
Adamantly Chosen is a good each-way shot after his recent Down Royal win, while Corach Rambler, last year’s winner, can return to finish in the top four again.
Marcus’ top four:
- Latenightpass
- Meetingofthewaters
- Adamantly Chosen
- Corach Rambler
Another Liverpool great
Sir Kenny Dalglish - former Liverpool footballer and manager – said: “It’s always a fantastic day at Aintree. There’s great atmosphere in and around the place - it’s fantastic.
“The facilities here are brilliant as well. It’s welcoming and all-encompassing for everybody.
“It’s not just people from Liverpool here, it’s people from all over.
“The attraction is getting bigger and bigger. It’s beneficial to everybody - to the racing fraternity and for the city of Liverpool itself, and the people who are opening businesses and hotels and everything. It’s a great advert for Liverpool.
“I don’t have a clue about any of the horses! For me, it’s all about coming along and being part and parcel of it.”
God day for the Skeltons so far...
... Dan Skelton improved his already impressive record in handicaps at the major meetings when Gwennie May Boy continued his rapid improvement in the William Hill Handicap Hurdle at Aintree.
Having won the Grand Annual and Coral Cup at Cheltenham with Unexpected Party and Langer Dan respectively, Skelton plundered another valuable prize on Merseyside with Kateira on Friday.
Last year’s winner West Balboa appeared the stable’s first string in the Grand National day curtain-raiser, going off a well-backed 11-4 favourite under the trainer’s brother, Harry, but this time around had to make do with minor honours behind a stablemate on a steep upward trajectory.
Gwennie May Boy, who had won both of his first two races since moving to Skelton from Jonjo O’Neill’s yard, looked like he had just joined in at the second-last under Charlie Todd and the 9-2 shot scooted clear from the final obstacle to score by seven and a half lengths from Lord Snootie.
“I have to say, I genuinely thought West Balboa would win, especially after Kateira won yesterday as there was nothing separating them when they last ran together at Kempton,” said Skelton.
“I am astounded at the improvement in this horse (Gwennie May Boy). He’s only a six-year-old and walking round beforehand I thought he looked a bit light and might be over the top, but what do I know - it’s clearly how he likes to be.
“I’ve not had him all that long and I hadn’t even worked him out before I ran him at Bangor, I just ran him. He won so well there I thought there’s a £100,000 race at Uttoxeter so we better go for that and then there was this here, it was just obvious.
“He has taken me by surprise as he works terrible at home, but he saves it all for the track and he’s just got on a roll. He’s been a remarkable little horse.”
Wind means no strong finishers
It is absolutely blowing a gale here at Aintree, playing havoc with many a fascinator. It is also having a significant influence over the racing. The wind is blowing straight down the finishing straight into the horses’ faces. Any jockey attempting to make an overtaking manoeuvre in the last furlong is being blown halfway back to Southport. It means that every horse so far today who has been leading at the last has won their race. So don’t expect a last gasp change of lead in the big one. If your horse is not winning as the field negotiates the final fence, time to chuck away your betting slip.
Grand National Free Bets
The time is now upon us so make sure you’ve made full use of the best Grand National free bets ahead of today’s feature race at Aintree.
Coming next: The Grand National
If you only watch one horse race in 2024, it should probably be the Grand National. Indeed by law, the Grand National is one of two horse races that must be broadcast on free-to-air television in the UK (the Epsom Derby is the other). We’re now less than an hour away from the race itself, which will be broadcast on ITV1.
Full results will be published the second they’re available, on this link.
Betting offers
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Off in the third race
It’s a three mile chase over the Mildmay course.
Cruz Control is making the running in this one with seven fences to go. Twig is going well in second. But a mistake from Cruz six out.
Erne River is in third but weakening.
The fancied Forward Plan is a bit boxed in and will need to find a path.
Cruz Control rallies, and is all out as he comes over the last but he’s digging in. A strong challenge from Forward Plan and here’s Sam Brown finishing very strongly! But Cruz Control is going to hold on. Battling win.
![Stan Sheppard riding Cruz Control](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/racing/2024/04/13/TELEMMGLPICT000373770915_17130156150360_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bqyntj27Do1A_uEF6jNSG5NjQ2fQls62HNhIwsSqb17Zk.jpeg?imwidth=350)
Panda Boy
There are four grey horses running in this afternoon’s Grand National: Vanillier, Coko Beach, Eldorado Allen and Panda Boy. Traditionally a disproportionate amount of money is wagered on grey horses, simply because they are easy to pick out in a 34-runner line-up. This year’s edition is no different, with money pouring in this morning for Panda Boy in particular. His odds are now 14/1. For a full list of the horses in this year’s race, consult our horse-by-horse guide.
Emergency flip flops
Already the workers are out in the crowd delivering emergency aid of the most pressing kind: flip flops. For increasingly refreshed visitors in towering heels this can make the difference between waking up tomorrow morning merely with a hangover rather than in A&E with your ankle in traction.
![flip flip](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/racing/2024/04/13/TELEMMGLPICT000373770479_17130156847110_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqzpnK1fqIf8AfXYjEGXVTop08y7QJ4BVgFhA8j6xy9Mc.jpeg?imwidth=350)
Brighterdaysahead wins the second
in real style. Gordon Elliott has said that she’s a possible Gold Cup mare in the past and comments on ITV just now: “Apple’s Jade was special but this one is good. Very good. Big and good.”
![Brighterdaysahead ridden by Jack Kennedy on their way to winning the Turners Mersey Novices' Hurdle](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/racing/2024/04/13/TELEMMGLPICT000373767828_17130140646850_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqVeV8OoZxp1WMt6i1E9eewNQL7TbDl1ZJT5T8iKwddQI.jpeg?imwidth=350)
1 Brighterdaysahead (J W Kennedy) 6-5 Fav
2 Staffordshire Knot (Sam Ewing) 20-1
3 Bugise Seagull (S Bowen) 50-1 8 ran
Also: 10-3 Jimmy Du Seuil 4th
Non Runner: 2
CSF: £25.66 Tricast: £783.23
Third race
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Liverpool hero Ian Rush on the National
Former Liverpool footballer Ian Rush said: “It’s a very good day at Aintree. I always look forward to it. Aintree shows what Liverpool is all about, and it’s not just the Liverpool fans, but the Everton fans as well.
“They all come together, they all say hello, and they’re all very respectful. This is what makes Aintree something different.
“The Grand National has a big place in people’s hearts, it’s been going for years and years. Aintree is something special. Liverpool are playing on Sunday, Everton are playing on Monday, so this is all concentrated on Aintree today.
“You can tell just listening to the vibes going around the course, it’s another special day. “I backed West Balboa in the first after winning on him last year. I’d never go against something that I’d backed before and it won.” [sorry to hear that Rushie]
Asked who he would like to see win the Grand National, he replied: “For me, being Welsh, a Kitty’s Light win in the Grand National would be amazing. It would be something special for all the people from Wales.
“It would be like when Aldaniti won, it would be something like that again. I’m biased being Welsh and everything … I watched all about it on TV and it brings a tear to your eye. They’re all very positive as well. It would be great if Kitty’s Light can get in the frame, and to win would be something special. Corach Rambler will be very difficult to go against, too, but let’s wait and see.”
Off in the second race
Josh The Boss leads them off. Esprit Du Potier is in second.
Jack Kennedy has got Brighterdaysahead well placed in about fifth.
With six hurdles to jump Bugise Seagull goes to join those front two I mentioned.
Wow - Brighterdaysahead has pulled away coming up the last and has absolutely mullered them. She’s won by, what, ten lengths.
Beefed-up security
“When I was walking the course I commented to one of the security guys that they looked like they had been beefed up a bit from last year’s jacket fillers’ in hi-viz. He said yes, I said ex-army, he said yes (and clearly he wasn’t from the catering corps). A few fences later I was talking to another of these guys and asked him if he was also ex-army. He said no, ‘five times Yorkshire kick boxing champion.’ - I would not be sellotaping myself to one of their fences this year.”
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Good start to the day for Dan Skelton
He’s saddled the winner there, Gwennie May Boy, and he has West Balboa in third as well.
Skelton has Galia Des Liteaux in the National at a decent price and not carrying too much weight. Skelton has shown himself a shrewd campaigner in handicaps, he had that Langer Dan at Cheltenham win off what ultimately proved a friendly mark.
![Gwennie May Boy ridden by Charlie Todd after winning the William Hill Handicap Hurdle](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/racing/2024/04/13/TELEMMGLPICT000373763569_17130132249600_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqgsaO8O78rhmZrDxTlQBjdLdu0TL-Cg_AMOUqySXmFgU.jpeg?imwidth=350)
First race in running
Bold Endeavour is well placed near the front under Nico DB, Classic Concorde is up there. The favourite West Balboa going along well enough in midfield. Quite a stiff pace in the first mile.
With thee hurdles to jump, West Balboa needs to move up. Coming to the last, it is Gwennie May Boy who takes it in front and is going to win very handsomely. West Balboa and Lord Snooty are going to dispute third but the winner is in a class of his own here. Charlie Todd up in the irons saluting the crowd as he crosses the line in splendid isolation.
Aintree 1.20
1 Gwennie May Boy (C J Todd) 9-2
2 Lord Snootie (Jack Tudor) 18-1
3 West Balboa (Harry Skelton) 11-4 Fav
4 Johnnywho (Jonjo O’Neill Jr.) 9-1
21 ran
Non Runner: 15 CSF: £84.45 Tricast: £280.37
The horses are going to post
for the first race, the William Hill Handicap Hurdle, run over three miles and half a furlong. West Balboa is the favourite.
Ready to roar home your William Hill Handicap Hurdle fancy? Check out the bookies’ best Grand National free bets for the first race
![Dog and soldier](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/racing/2024/04/13/TELEMMGLPICT000373759590_17130111601180_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqLiZnSJs8x6dOfuqFtiWqEYcVDYQgraobqQUfClveac8.jpeg?imwidth=350)
Union Flag suit
From our fashion correspondent (!)
“In among the ankle-clinger and bum-freezer suits favoured by young Liverpool on its grand day out there was a reassuring sight lining up to place a bet at one of the course side bookies. In this era when the union flag has been constantly re-designed, from a bizarre multi-coloured effort to be sported by Team GB at the Paris Olympics to the all blue efforts favoured by Conservative local election candidates, it was re-assuring to see a bloke waiting to place his bet dressed up in a suit made up of proper, old school red white and blue union flags. The fact he had topped off his outfit with a union flag bedecked fisherman’s hat that appeared to have been left over from a 1990s rave did not detract from the sartorial glory of his effort.”
First race is at 1.20pm
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Get the latest Grand National free bets and offers
Here we are, it’s the day we’ve all been waiting for – the 2024 Grand National at Aintree. Claim a range of free bets for today’s showstopper with these Grand National betting offers
Grand National day
Good afternoon, hope you are enjoying your Saturday so far and thank you for joining us for our live blog of the Grand National, where we will have runners and riders, tips, and a pinstickers’ guide to the Aintree race. It’s one of the great days in the British and Irish sporting calendar and we will have all the build up throughout the afternoon.
The weather here in London is lovely and sunny but there are some showers and a breeze up in Liverpool. The going is listed as soft, good to soft in places on the National course (same on the Mildmay course as well). It had been heavy there on Thursday and I think on Friday but, from what I saw watching on TV, it didn’t look quite such a slog as all that and there were some cracking finishes.
We will be getting updates throughout the afternoon from our men at the course, including Telegraph racing correspondent and legit Aintree legend Marcus Armytage, who won the race in 1990 aboard Mr Frisk. Our eagle-eyed newshounds will also be there for any news of fisticuffs, beastly behaviour, nose-powdering, equine welfare, horse deaths, protests and all the other myriad sideshows around this unique event.
If you are unsure about how to start selecting a horse, this here is an excellent guide: Grand National 2024 tips, best bet and how to pick the winner.
There is early news of a non-runner: 19 Run Wild Fred, who will not be running wild or otherwise in the National.
Oh wait. And Chambard, whose goose was surely cooked when I bet on him ante-post, is also an NR.
It’s Jonjo O’Neill’s birthday today. Not sure he has actually got a runner in the big race but he’s got some at Aintree today. Monbeg Genius was to have been his National horse I think but that was withdrawn. In fact I backed that ante-post as well. So in short, avoid any of my selections.
Here’s JP McManus: “I don’t think there is any race like the Grand National. From being a kid I always had a bet in the National, no matter how old you are it is the one race everybody watched. If you go to the local hurling club or wherever, they’d all know who won the Grand National. Look at AP (McCoy), it took him a long time to win it but I know how much it meant to him when he did, I’m just surprised these days he doesn’t say he should have won it twice!”