It is getting closer and closer to being one of the best sports events of the year. When the excitement over horses is in full swing all of the fans of horses, and the casual fans, bet on the horses. With most of the big horse racing events, we like to look at the favourites and give you a rundown on them so you can make an informed decision. 

With the Grand National fastly approaching more and more names are coming out, so looking at the confirmed names, who is the favourite?

Nick Rockett, 6/1

A horse training legend, Willie Mullins is renowned for being one of the best trainers in horse racing, and last year Mullins’ horse I Am Maximus took home an unexpected win. 

All eyes are back on Mullins as he prepares his horses, especially his unexposed novice horse, Nick Rockett, who we expect to be all the rage of this festival. Boylesports has Nick Rockett’s odds as 6/1 making him the overwhelming favourite, and we can see why, with Willie Mullins putting this much trust in you, you have to be talented.

Corbetts Cross, 8/1

This horse is trained by Emmet Mullins and is highly considered one of the favourites of the Irish Grand National as Boylesports has this horse sat at odds of 8/1. Corbetts Cross is fresh off an impressive victory in the National Hunt Chase at Cheltenham, and we are expecting this good form to continue and for Corbets Cross to put on a great race in the Irish Grand National. This could make betting on the 2024 Irish Grand National harder as a good form for a horse is a massive positive, as the jockey will be confident that the horse can perform at a high level and the horse will know its stride and carry on how it ended the last race.

Gevrey, 33/1

At the previous Irish Grand National Gevrey finished second behind ‘I am Maximus’, this is a fine margin in a horse race and one minor error could have changed the winner of last year’s race. So this year trainer, Gordon Elliott, will want to push his 8-year-old horse to do better and get the win. With Gevrey’s odds being 33/1 show that it is clear that the bookmakers see Gevrey as an outside shout and another high finish for the horse would be a massive shock and a massive statement.

The races that Gevrey has taken part in this year have not been the best, so this could explain the disparity in odds for the favourites and last year’s runner-up.

Our prediction 

Looking at the odds list for the race makes the race seem even harder to predict. Several horses could win and this includes even more that we have not mentioned, horses like Perceval Legallois are sat at odds of 8/1 according to Boylesports, which is the same as Corbetts Cross. 

We mentioned earlier that horse racing has fine margins and one slip-up by a horse could massively change what happens in the race. So it is fairly difficult to predict who will win but we still like to have a go. Looking at the list of names we are going to predict Corbetts Cross as the winner. 

Although Nick Rockett is the favourite we think that the good form and the more experienced horse will come into play. 

Final Thoughts

We love making predictions and looking at the horses in-depth and this year the Irish Grand National has a lot of exciting names and names that we can see sticking around in the horse racing sport for a while and picking up a lot of wins.