Wayne Bailey / 03 April 2009 Free Bet

Well, the wait is over and the biggest steeplechase of all is finally upon us. It's the race where everyone and their granny has a bet, and my four-year-old daughter has already picked out Snowy Morning as her fancy - as we have a little white dog called Snowy at home! It is the Grand National after all, so who am I to argue with that logic?

Seriously though, despite being described as a 'lottery' quite often, the stats tell a different story and 14 of the last 18 winners all started in the first eight in the betting - so punters haven't been too far off in recent times. With this in mind, my first tip is to dutch the top eight horses in the market which offers an overall price of [1.85] at the time of writing. I know that dutching isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I don't care what the purists say if I can get the metaphorical book in my favour. If you are unfamiliar with the concept of dutching, have a read of this article provided by Let's Bet.

But who will actually win? If I'm honest, I think My Will has the best chance but his short price makes little appeal in a race where anything can happen; and any value that was left was quickly snapped up as soon as Ruby announced that he'd be riding the nine-year-old. Similarly, Butlers Cabin is in with a great shout but once again the jockey on board has pushed his price down too low for me. Instead, I'm looking to Irish Invader to fly the flag for Ireland and the Willie Mullins yard. Paul Townend gets the ride and I've been banging on about that young jockey on these pages for a few weeks now - and I'd love to see him nab a place at the least in his first ever ride in the National. Irish Invader has many of the traits that make up a typical Grand National winner and he's done very little wrong all season. I found him particularly impressive at Leopardstown over the Christmas festival when he won a tricky renewal of the paddypowerpoker.com Handicap Chase, and [27.0] is fantastic value. He's also worth a bet in the place market too and I'm expecting a bold run.

Two other horses for the place market are Comply Or Die and Darkness. The former won the race last year, and despite carrying extra weight in 2009, he still looks like the sort that can put in a big display and he's surely in with a fighting chance. The latter is now aged ten, but showed no signs of slowing down when winning the Veterans' Handicap Chase at Newbury last-time-out and if he jumps well, he can claim a minor prize.

In the Aintree Hurdle (2.50) Celestial Halo can knock up another win for the Ruby Walsh and Paul Nicholls team. He was unlucky when coming second to Punjabi in the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham, but I reckon he's suited to Aintree and [5.5] is a good price.

Recommendations:

* Dutch the top eight horses in the Grand National market
* Back Irish Invader in both win and place markets in the Grand National
* Back both Comply Or Die and Darkness to be placed in the Grand National
* Back Celestial Halo in the Aintree Hurdle

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