To help those interested in Grand National betting, Coral previews at some of the trainers to look out for at Aintree this year.

Last year’s Aintree Festival was where Willie Mullins really closed the gap on the UK Trainers’ Championship, eventually beating Dan Skelton to the prize. Although he is an Irish trainer, Mullins is a highly competitive trainer with an incredibly strong team of horses. He will be taking a significant portion of this week’s prizemoney, whether from winners or placers, but he will not want to be losing his Championship title and could be a formidable force once again.
Keen to fend off a challenge in the Championship, which still could occur despite the fact that Skelton leads by £2million in amassed prize money for the season so far, Skelton will have to keep winning top class races as the season closes if he wants to be confident of his win. With few favourites over the next few days, he may be feeling the heat and will need to be confident that his horses can win, so he will be taking no chances.
The likes of Lulamba, Jango Baie and Jonbon will be filling the Seven Barrows-based trainer with some hope that he can have a more successful Aintree than his week at Cheltenham, where the horses ran well but not well enough. Henderson has a particular affinity for the spring Festivals and is second in the trainers’ Championship at present. His horses are not to be taken lightly, no matter what their price.
An excellent season of results has set Ben Pauling up very nicely for a successful three days at Aintree. Yet to have his 10th winner at the track, the Naunton-based handler has been seeing such a consistent stream of success this term that he is getting harder to ignore. His horses are making their presence felt in top class races and there is no reason for that to change this week.
Coral ambassador Joe Tizzard has maintained a solid strike rate all season long and goes into Aintree week with some good recent results to give confidence. With the likes of Alexei and Fairy Park looking to have good chances on the first day of the Festival, he could be in the prize money, or even the winners’ enclosure.
Coral has also looked at some of the jockeys to watch out for at Aintree this year ahead of the Grand National race.
View the Grand National 2026 odds and specials.
All odds and markets correct as of date of publication.