Horses Grand National: 2026 tips, jockey deaths and safety facts

Few sporting events pull a nation’s attention the way the Grand National does — and few carry a heavier emotional weight. Every April, millions tune in to Aintree for the drama and the spills, even as the race’s safety record keeps making headlines — and with the 2026 running restricted to a maximum field of 34 runners (Sporting News (sports outlet)), this guide separates the verified facts from the rumours: the expert picks, the safety changes and the darker questions — Shergar, jockey deaths, whip welfare — that keep resurfacing.

Runners: 34 ·
Distance: 4 miles 2 furlongs ·
Fences: 30 ·
Prize pool: £1 million (estimated) ·
Location: Aintree Racecourse, Liverpool

Six data points, one pattern: everything that matters about the 2026 race orbits the 2023 safety shake-up and a handful of dominant stables.

What are the Grand National 2026 predictions?

The 2026 market is already taking shape, and the early signals are unusually clear: pundits have published their fancies, Timeform’s ratings point to a clear top two, and one owner holds six of the 34 slots.

The pundits’ picks

• BBC Sport pundit John Hunt goes with Panic Attack, Grangeclare West, Jagwar and Jordans, with Quai de Bourbon as his best outsider (BBC Sport (UK public broadcaster)).
• Fellow BBC Sport pundit Gina Bryce names Grangeclare West, Monty’s Star, Panic Attack and I Am Maximus, with Spanish Harlem as her best outsider (BBC Sport (UK public broadcaster)).
• JP McManus has six runners in the race, with Jagwar, Johnnywho and Iroko the leading chances (The Times (UK newspaper)).

What the ratings sheets say

• Timeform ranks Johnnywho (184) ahead of Jagwar (183), Perceval Legallois (181) and the 180-rated pair Final Orders and Panic Attack; its preview selects Johnnywho and Jagwar ahead of 2024 winner I Am Maximus (Timeform (racing ratings authority)).
• The early market agrees: I Am Maximus, Jagwar and Panic Attack are joint 8-1 favourites (Racing Post (racing daily)).

The pattern: two establishments — McManus’s money and Mullins’s momentum — are setting the early agenda. Everyone else is picking around them.

What jockey died while racing?

This is the kind of search that spikes every April, usually attached to a short clip and a breathless caption. The sources reviewed for this guide do not verify any specific jockey dying while racing at a recent Grand National.

What is verifiable is the sport’s own response to danger. The 2023 safety package cut the field from 40 to 34 runners, introduced a standing start, moved the start time earlier and added padding to the fences (Sporting News (sports outlet)).

What this means: the most-shared casualty story around the National is usually the least documented. Follow the safety record, not the clip.

Why was Shergar killed?

Shergar, the Epsom Derby winner, was kidnapped in 1983 and reportedly killed shortly afterwards; his body has never been found. Those details are among the most repeated in racing history — and among the least verified.

The question endures because Shergar was the sport’s biggest box-office star, and a crime with no body offers no closure.

The pattern: repeat a story often enough and it hardens into fact. The verified record on Shergar ends at a missing body.

Do the whips hurt the horses?

This is the welfare question at the centre of every National debate, and the honest answer from the available research is that it remains unresolved.

• The documented safety changes — standing start, earlier start time, padded fences — targeted falls, not whip use (Sporting News (sports outlet)).
• Whip rules themselves sit outside the 2023 package and were not covered in the sources reviewed here.

The implication: any headline declaring the whip question settled is outrunning the evidence. Treat it as a live debate, not a closed case.

What jockey was trampled by a horse?

Like the death queries, this one tends to resurface from an old clip and spread as if it happened last week. The sources reviewed for this guide include no verified account of a jockey being trampled at a recent Grand National.

The same rumour cycle produces recurring searches such as “Why is Hollie Doyle in hospital?” — a claim the supplied research does not verify in any form.

• The standing start and 34-runner field were introduced to reduce the bunching and faller pile-ups that make trampling a risk in the first place (Sporting News (sports outlet)).

The pattern: the viral story is almost never the current one. The current story is a race that has spent three years engineering those risks down.

Timeline: from 40 runners to 34

The race’s recent history is short and deliberate: three years of changes, each one aimed at the same risk.

• 2023 — Safety package arrives: field cut from 40 to 34, standing start introduced, start time moved, fences padded (Sporting News (sports outlet)).
• 2024–2025 — I Am Maximus, then Nick Rockett, take consecutive editions (Racing Post (racing daily)).
• April 2026 — Randox Grand National at Aintree; Nick Rockett ruled out; Willie Mullins targets three straight wins (Timeform (racing ratings authority)).

What the timeline shows: every major change since 2023 has been a response to falls — fewer runners, slower start, padded fences.

What’s confirmed — and what’s still unclear

The gap between the two columns is the whole story: the certain parts of the National are about field size, winners and ratings; the uncertain parts are the ones that travel fastest online.

The pundits are already on the record

John Hunt’s first four: Panic Attack, Grangeclare West, Jagwar and Jordans. His best outsider: Quai de Bourbon.

John Hunt, BBC Sport pundit (BBC Sport (UK public broadcaster))

Gina Bryce’s first four: Grangeclare West, Monty’s Star, Panic Attack and I Am Maximus. Her best outsider: Spanish Harlem.

Gina Bryce, BBC Sport pundit (BBC Sport (UK public broadcaster))

Johnnywho can lead home team McManus.

Timeform’s 2026 Grand National preview (Timeform (racing ratings authority))

The takeaway: the pundits disagree on names but converge on the same shortlist — Panic Attack, Jagwar and Grangeclare West appear on multiple early tickets.

The takeaway: The 2026 Grand National is shaping up as a safety-first race with a two-camp storyline: JP McManus’s six runners against Willie Mullins’s shot at history. For anyone planning a bet, the implication is clear: treat the early market as a snapshot, not a verdict — or wait for final declarations to set the real field.

Frequently asked questions

The pattern in these answers: the facts that check out are recent, sourced and specific; the ones that don’t are old, anonymous and viral.