The highlight of the Saturday at Aintree is of course the Grand National.

40 horses will go to post in the Grand National at 4.15pm and we’ve picked out some of the main protagonists in the betting.

Current favourite is the Paul Nicholls’ trained My Will at 15/2 with totesport after a terrific fifth place finish in the Cheltenham Gold Cup last month. Trends however suggest that the 11 stone 5 he’ll be lumping around is too heavy to win a National so he’ll be looking to buck that trend!

So, with the trends very much in mind we’ve picked out the following horse based on these typical pointers for previous winners:

All carrying under 11 stone
All rated between 136 and 144
All aged between nine and eleven
All winners over three miles plus
All winners of a Class 1 or Class 2 Chase
All have at least 10 runs over fences
All ran within the last 49 days
All finished placed this season
All bar one has form in a ‘National’ race

Cornish Sett has been largely ignored in the build up to this year’s race, mainly due to the focus being on two of his stablemates, My Will and Big Fella Thanks. But he would have to have a great chance based on his 2nd place in the Welsh National this season behind Notre Pere – who would have been a short price if taking part. Although he only finished 12th in last year’s race and was well beaten into eighth by Rambling Minster on his latest start, he did land the Badger Ales Trophy back in November (his first success since 2006) so at least has decent winning form to his name – and he’s related to two previous National winners!

Rambling Minster would almost certainly be challenging for favouritism if he was trained in one of the more fashionable stables, but as a Northern raider he has perhaps not been rated as highly as the other market leaders. He won on his last two starts including the Blue Square Gold Cup Chase at Haydock (a race won by 1992 winner Party Politics), beating leading fancy before injury Character Building in both races.

Second favourite Butler’s Cabin has a real chance of delivering AP McCoy his first run win in the race. The Jonjo O’Neil trained 9yo has the profile of a National winner having won the Irish Grand National two years ago and was traveling strongly when falling at Becher’s second time round last year. A good blow out in the Kim Muir last month should leave him with every chance on Saturday.

Totesport will be betting each-way 1/4 the odds a place 1,2,3,4,5 so it’s an excellent place to get your each-way bets on.

There are of course six over races at Aintree tomorrow and as per usual we’ve put up our selection box for the day.

Aintree Festival selections – Day 2

1.45pm – Cape Tribulation

2.15pm – Kalahari King

2.50pm – Al Eile

3.25pm – Pretty Star

4.15pm – Butler’s Cabin

5.00pm – Fairyland

Check out totesport for all prices for the Aintree Festival.