Grand National Antepost Tips: Beauport to run a massive race for Twister at 25/1

• Season geared around Aintree for Iroko

• Beauport an each-way bet at 25/126.00 for Saturday's big race

• Alan Dudman gives his Grand National 1-2-3 for Saturday 

• Get a completely free bet on any racing multi across Aintree

• Check out our Aintree Grand National Hub

• Read Dan Fitch's Unmissable Guide to the Grand National

• Everything you need to know in our Ultimate 2025 Grand National Festival Guide

• Read Katie Midwinter's runner-by-runner guide to the National

Iroko still looks a bet despite his 7/18.00 favourite price

Can there ever be a good thing in a Grand National? I'd say of course not, don't be so stupid, but Iroko could be the class act, which if you've followed him closely, and closer than the handicapper, I am revealing nothing too dramatic.

There may have been a degree of turbulence in the season of the JP McManus-owned chaser, but the 7/18.00 favourite has had his whole campaign geared around Aintree with runs over shorter and as he's yet to race beyond 3m this season, it's either going to be a genius piece of work from the training duo of Oliver Greenall & Josh Guerriero, as we are yet to see the apex of his potential as a staying fencer, or a flop.

It's been an amusing game of cat and mouse and a mark of 152 for a horse with so much potential is still probably a bet worth taking.

Timeform have him as the only runner in the line-up with a small 'p' to denote improvement to come and the novice form of his Grade 1 Mildmay Novices' Chase at Aintree's Grand National Festival cannot look any better. That run looks gold dust following the recent Cheltenham Festival as he split Gold Cup winner Inowthewayurthinkin and Ryanair Chase runner-up Heart Wood.

Of course the race has changed in profile in the last 20 years or so, with the old fashioned stayers now out of vogue and Graded form is what is needed for a less frantic race with more grace.

If we compare him to veteran Ida's Boy - rated 151, and a 66/167.00 poke, Iroko has a lovely mark. Stumptown has a decent Timeform figure too with 182 plays Iroko's 183 and Cross Country form versus a superior level, and as the Boxing writers of the past used to say: "Styles make great fights".

Nick Rockett and Beauport a pair of 25/126.00 each-way contenders

I tend to play the National in Countdown fashion - with one from the top, one from the middle and a big priced outsider and the 25/126.00 on Nick Rockett fits into several trends for Willie Mullins.

They say it's a young man's game these days, and ten of the last 20 horses placed have come from the seven and eight-year-old bracket and I like his route into the race with runs in the Thyestes and the Bobbyjo - two of the more traditional trial races pre-Aintree.

Mullins' National hero Hedgehunter won the Thyestes in 2004, as did Martin Brassill's Numbersixvalverde the following year but it's the run in the Bpbbyjo that worries me slightly as he's worse off now at the weights with Intense Raffles and he'd be on a stiff-looking mark of 163. He's not the biggest, but Tiger Roll proved that is no obstacle.

At a similar price we have Nigel Twiston-Davies' Beauport at 25s and he is more the old-fashioned type of stayer than the sleek upstarts and it's easy to forget how he bolted up in the Berkshire National at Ascot back in November by a massive 31 lengths from a mark of 144.

He jumped well there bar a mistake at the last and his campaign and the mark has suffered as a result to 156 which is perhaps why the Twister has since campaigned him over hurdles and his jumping should be more suited anyway to the softer fences compared the the brutes of yesteryear.

It's been far from an arduous season with just three starts and we ought not to have any stamina doubt as a Midlands' National winner in heavy last term although he did jump out to his right which is something to ponder and perhaps used a warning, but he does fit a class and stamina angle, and I try not to get too bogged down in left and right-handed.

Bryan and Philippa Burrough, the owners of Beauport know a thing or two about the game as their Corbiere was a winner of the great race back in 1983, and Corbiere was often a horse I'd pick in the ZX Spectrum Grand National game which took timing and patience on the old rubber keys. What days, as my brother would often use West Tip as his runner.

Come on EA Sports, we really need a horse-racing game to rival FC25. 

The 80/181.00 flyer for Elliott 

Gordon Elliott's Favori De Champdou looks up against it from a price point of view anyway at a mega 80/181.00 but he won't lack for stamina and has had a fairly sound prep this term with thirds in both the Thyestes Handicap Chase at Gowran Park and Grand National Trial at Punchestown this season.

Indeed, he looked all about stamina at Punchestown while in soft ground as he rallied late on with the fourth from home fence omitted and he had a nice little joyful spin around Down Royal last time facing just two rivals rated 126 and 107 to win by seven wickets. It was a mere testimonial lap of honour last month.

If you go back far enough he was impressive winning the Florida Pearl as a novice with a fine jumping display and he's still relatively lightly-raced with 10 starts over fences, and back then, Elliott thought of him as a prototype National Hunt Chase horse for the Cheltenham Festival.

"He's a very strong stayer and the further he goes, the better he gets. He could nearly have gone around there again," said Elliott back in December 2023.

He's a low weight as number 37 on the list at the time of writing and if he gets round his stamina might see him nick a place. We can hope with an 80/181.00 shot, and hope is the best of all things.

Good luck!

Alan Dudman's Grand National 1-2-3 verdict

1) Iroko
2) Beauport
3) Favori De Champdou

Now read more from the Betfair Grand National preview pages for Saturday!