Grand National ante-post betting news

Trainer Emmet Mullins is playing down hopes that Noble Yeats can become the second horse in five years to retain the Grand National.

The bay gelding was a surprise winner of the Aintree showpiece last season, becoming the first seven-year-old to succeed in 82 years as he and amateur rider Sam Waley-Cohen led the field home on Merseyside.

His form this season includes a Grade 2 victory back at Aintree and he was fourth recently in the Cheltenham Gold Cup in completing his prep.

While Tiger Roll did it in 2018 and 2019, the previous repeat winner was Red Rum in 1973 and 1974 and Mullins is not underestimating the scale of the challenge ahead, despite Noble Yeats’s fine form this campaign.

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Market likes Noble Yeats’s chance of a repeat

A general 8/1 shot to repeat last season’s success, the 167-rated chaser will have to carry 11st 11lb to victory if he is to emulate the likes of Tiger Roll and Red Rum by winning consecutive Grand Nationals.

His recent Cheltenham Gold Cup effort was a strong showing, staying on late behind the principles after getting outpaced in a stellar renewal.

That race has left him spot on and it is very much a case of ticking over between now and Aintree on April 15, according to Noble Yeats’s young trainer.

Mullins says: “He has come out of the Gold Cup very well. He looks great. If he hadn’t run in the Gold Cup I would be saying I need to work him this week, so it’s all systems go for the National.”

More to be done but lots in his favour

Noble Yeats was rated 147 going into the Grand National last spring. He was still a novice over fences, with just seven runs and one win over the larger obstacles.

He carried 10st 10lb in victory under his amateur rider, the son of owner Robert Waley-Cohen, as they held off Any Second Now by two-and-a-quarter lengths at the end of the four-and-a-quarter-mile Aintree trip.

Noble Yeats won two of his first three races this season, a Listed contest at Wexford in October and then the Grade 2 Many Clouds Chase over 3m 1f at Aintree in December.

He was a solid third behind Ahoy Senor at Cheltenham on Trials Day in January and then followed home Galopin Des Champs, Bravemansgame and potential National rival Conflated in the Cotswolds on St Patrick’s Day, March 17, in that fine Gold Cup run.

Noble Yeats was just over a length behind Gordon Elliott’s Conflated at the line, making good inroads late on, and his trainer admits that coming back to Aintree and this familiar test must be taken as positives.

“It’s going to be a mammoth task to carry that weight, but we know he likes the course and stays the trip so that’s two big ticks to have,” Mullins says.

“He ran a good race at Cheltenham, he galloped all the way to the line and the National trip looks to be definitely in his favour.”

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