Grand National Betting

The Grand National is in April 2011. If you are looking for a top online bookmaker for your Grand National betting then look no further than the exemplary Bet365. This is the latest betting on the Grand National 2011 from Bet365.

Here is the latest Grand National betting from our top four online bookmakers:

GRAND NATIONAL BETTING, 2011 (Saturday April 9, 2011)
	Bet365	William Hill	Stan James	Victor Chandler
DENMAN	14/1	12/1	10/1	14/1
DONT PUSH IT	20/1	16/1	20/1	16/1
BLACK APALACHI	25/1	20/1	25/1	25/1
SILVER BY NATURE	-	-	25/1	25/1
BIG FELLA THANKS	25/1	33/1	25/1	25/1
MERIGO	25/1	-	25/1	33/1
NICHE MARKET	33/1	-	33/1	33/1
STATE OF PLAY	25/1	33/1	25/1	33/1
VIC VENTURI	-	-	33/1	33/1
BLUESEA CRACKER	-	-	25/1	25/1
THE PACKAGE	40/1	-	33/1	33/1
MALJIMAR	33/1	50/1	25/1	40/1
Other runners - see quotes on the bookies' websites Each-way bet place terms: 1/4 odds 1-2-3-4.

Bet365 also offers new clients £200 free. This is a 100% bonus on your first deposit.

Bet365 is Best for GRAND NATIONAL BETTING Claim £200

The Grand National Story

Grand National Result 2010

What makes half the UK adult population reach into their pockets for a bet on the Grand National? Grand National Betting becomes a national obsession for one day a year. The huge showpiece event is run at Aintree racecourse in Liverpool. It may not be 'the horserace that stops a nation' but it certainly stops half the UK nation and a fair percentage of a few others.

Grand National betting is an extraordinary phenomenon but it is an extraordinary race. Only the English could devise a race to gamble on that resembles a cavalry charge with forty horses setting out to gallop four and half miles and jump thirty fences that are higher and sometimes wider than any encountered elsewhere on a racecourse.  

The subsequent spectacle has made the Grand National the world’s most famous and most watched steeplechase. First run in 1839, the level of interest in the race grew to such a degree that, by 1947, the race was run on a Saturday for the first time at the request of the then Prime Minister, Clement Attlee, who claimed it was for the benefit of the UK economy.

The Grand National was first televised in 1960. In 1961 betting away from racecourses became legal and the first high street betting shops opened.  Betting turnover has been increasing ever since. During the global recession of 2009, Grand National betting bucked the economic trend and generated turnover in excess of a quarter of a billion pounds.

The big winners in the 2009 Grand National were unquestionably the bookmakers. Their great fear is that a fancied horse with a person’s name in it is successful (if 2009 favourite, 7-1 My Will, had prevailed it could have been record losses rather than record profits). Only the betting shop that had the misfortune to be the closest to the winning trainer, Venetia Williams’, yard reported a loss.

At betting odds of 100-1 the little fancied winner, Mon Mome, has also helped to keep the myth that ‘anyone can win’ – and at a very big price - alive. To find another 100-1 odds winner, you need to delve back to 1967 to find Foinavon who carried John Buckingham to victory.  Unlike Mon Mome, he seemed to have little chance in a conventionally run race (if there is such a thing in the National) but was the main beneficiary of a field clearing pile up at the 23^rd fence which now bears his name.

One leading bookmaker claims that one in three punters is female. What makes women venture into the male dominated world of gambling purely for the potential massacre that is the Grand National? Few women jockeys have elected to take part but two women, Venetia Williams with Mon Mome and Jenny Pitman with Corbiere and Royal Athlete, have successfully trained winners.

While efforts have been made to improve safety, the Grand National has, historically, had an equine casualty rate that renders not just the animal rights campaigners incandescent. Even after the much publicised course safety improvements, it is likely that at least one of the 40 runners will not survive to race another day.

For Grand National betting, the average bet is reported by bookmakers to be just £5-£10. The ‘lottery’ aspect of the race deters some of the heavyweight professional punters. Anything can happen and it already has. Apart from a bomb scare delay and the predictable field depleting pile-ups, in 1993 Esha Ness won the race that never was following a false start.

Is this why people who usually only bet on other sports will venture into horse racing just for the Grand National?  Other people who do not bet at all, make an exception for their annual punt on the Grand National.   

Is it the prospect of a winner at odds akin to 100-1? In recent years favourites at relatively meagre odds of 7-1 have come in with increasing regularity. Comply or Die in 2008 was the most recent offender, but have people noticed? Or is it that a 7-1 odds winner (even in a race with 40 runners in which the best horse may be brought down by a supposed no-hoper) still makes a large enough winning purse for the average Grand National punter to get excited about their winnings? Not many races have a favourite at odds as long as 7-1.

The Grand National certainly generates more than its fair share of good stories. Whether it’s a family affair with Ruby Walsh, winning on Papillion, a horse trained by his father, Ted Walsh, who was victorious in 2000 or ‘triumph in the face of adversity’ with Bob Champion’s win on Aldaniti. Both horse and rider had overcome massive health problems, life threatening cancer for Bob and potentially career ending leg injuries for Aldaniti.

There’s no shortage of irony either.  Paul Nicholls, the UK’s leading jumps trainer, who has so far failed to win the National despite numerous attempts, sold Silver Birch on veterinary advice.  The horse went on to win the race in 2007 then trained by the less well known Gordon Elliot.

So how do you make the most of Grand National betting and pick the Grand National winner?

Looking back at the past race winners list there are certain trainers who seem to be particularly adept at delivering the goods. The late Vincent O’Brien won the race in three consecutive years with three different horses. Ginger McCain is the most successful Grand National trainer still operating with Amberleigh House leading them home in 2004 providing him with a fourth training victory in the race following the legendary Red Rum’s three wins in the seventies.

Encouraging course experience is a positive indicator too. Horses (and jockeys) known to handle the Grand National obstacles have to be taken seriously even if they have weaknesses in other areas. Mon Mome had successfully completed the course in 2008.

Horses carrying more than 11 stone are, looking at the statistics, less likely to be successful than those with 11 stone and under. Horses aged nine are also the most prevalent on the recent winners board.

If you are looking for a long priced odds winner, recent history dictates that a 7-1 favourite is unfortunately much more likely to give you a return than a horse priced at odds over 33-1. But the great thing about Grand National betting – and perhaps the reason that it is so popular – is that there is always hope, and it has regularly triumphed over expectation.

£1000 of GRAND NATIONAL FREE BETS