Dan Skelton Grand National thoughts blog: 'Good luck to everybody, but mostly to Harry!'

He may not have a runner in the 2025 Grand National, but leading trainer and Ladbrokes ambassador Dan Skelton has provided his thoughts on who is going to win in his latest blog.

The Grand National is a great race; I love it, I love the day - I love the whole three days, to be honest. Being able to showcase our sport with that race is vitally important to us all. Unfortunately we don't have a runner in it, but that's because I don't deem that we've got one suitable that will go and give us a proper chance. We're all careful of what we put in the race, and having the safety factor reduced to 34, I think, is a positive judged on last year.

I think it's going to be another really good race. It'd be great to see Harry [Skelton] win it, for Paul [Nicholls]. on Threeunderthrufive. Forget the Trainers' Championships and all that, I'd just love to see Harry win it. But I think it's going to be hard; he's not one of the more fancied ones but he should hopefully stay the trip. And if he takes to fences, you never know.

I think the ones to beat are going to be the obvious ones, to be honest with you. Iroko has been trained for this race, and I've got a lot of respect for him; I thought he ran well behind our Grey Dawning the last day. I think you've got to give I Am Maximus a lot of respect, but it's going to be very hard for him, carrying top weight... no horse has done that since Red Rum. 

Outside of those two, you could make cases for so many of them - it's a very open race. Hewick stays and loves the ground - he's not had a busy season by his standards. All these sorts of stories come into play for this kind of race; Stumptown is improving rapidly and sees out the distance very well. If you're asking me to pick a winner, I'd probably go with Iroko, with Harry and Threeunderthrufive as an each-way shot.

It's going to be a good race, so good luck to everybody... but mostly to Harry!

Ladbrokes has valuable insights into the favourites heading into Saturday's Grand National at Aintree, as well as a beginners guide to betting on the race for those new to the scene.

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All odds and markets are correct as of the date of publication.