How To Bet £20 on the 2018 Randox Health Grand National

There are a multitude of ways to bet your £20 on the Randox Health Grand National at Aintree (5.15) on Saturday.

Bookmakers offer prices on just about every aspect of the race - will there be a false start, how many finishers, age of winner, winning distance and the like - but let’s not try and complicate things and stick to the basics.

I’ll be splitting my £20 on the five horses below and hopefully I’ll still have something to cheer by halfway.

Three of them are 33-1 or bigger but don’t think I’ve gone mad because five of the past six winners have been 25-1 or bigger.

Good luck with all your bets.

RAZ DE MAREE £3 each-way at a general 28-1:

Age is but a number for Raz De Maree (PA)

It has been almost a century since a horse aged older than 12 has won the Grand National and, on goodish ground, I would steer clear of the older brigade because they simply lack the gears to keep up.

However, conditions on Saturday are going to be somewhere between soft and heavy after more rain at the course on Friday and that means a slower race and more time for golden oldies like Raz De Maree, who is 13, to keep up.

Two years ago the going was soft, for instance, and Vics Canvas, the only equine teenager in the field, came third at 100-1. He would have gone even closer, too, but he went close to exiting at Becher’s on the first circuit.

Raz De Maree relishes muddy conditions and defied his teenage status when winning the Welsh Grand National on his latest start. The going was so deep that day that some fences had to be missed out.

The previous year he had run a screamer in the same race when pulling clear with future Gold Cup winner Native River and his record also includes a second in a Midlands National.

I’ve no doubt he is a better horse than when eighth in the 2014 Grand National (has since moved stables a couple of times and his headgear has been dispensed with) and his early exit last year was not his fault.

He’s 33-1 with most firms but if he was a couple of years younger he would be half that price. The booking of the excellent Robbie Power, successful aboard Silver Birch in 2007, is the icing on the cake.

HOUBLON DES OBEAUX £2.50 each-way at a general 50-1:

There must be something in the theory that familiarity breeds contempt because Houblon Des Obeaux is no 50-1 chance.

He has been a class act over the years, acts well on testing ground and his trainer has hit form with a vengeance this week after a quiet season.

Houblon Des Obeaux is not the force who made a valiant attempt to concede 6lb to Many Clouds in the 2014 Hennessy off a rating of 157 with 11st 10lb on his back but that is reflected by his mark having slipped to 144.

He coped well enough with the demands of the Grand National off a 5lb higher rating 12 months ago when plugging on to be tenth - a position Mon Mome occupied for the trainer before winning a year later at 100-1.

The ground was plenty quick enough for Houblon Des Obeaux last year and he was also entitled to be feeling the effects of having finished fourth in the Midlands National just three weeks earlier.

This time underfoot conditions will play much more to his strengths and the 11-year-old arrives on the back of a less strenuous effort - a keeping-on third over 3m at Ascot a month ago - when first-time blinkers did him no harm. The headgear is retained.

His close third over 3m1f at Hereford in January (again staying on) also looks better than it did at the time after Regal Flow, the runner-up, subsequently ran away with the Midlands National.

He has had far more racing than most winners of the race - this will be his 57th start - but he’s no veteran and now looks to now need an extreme distance. And for what’s it is worth, Amberleigh House was having his 60th start under Rules when scoring in 2004.

CARLINGFORD LOUGH £1.50 each-way at a general 50-1:

Carlingford Lough has won five Grade One prizes (PA)

Owner JP McManus looks to have a strong hand as he seeks his second winner of the race after Don’t Push It in 2010.

I’m not sure I’ve seen or read a word about Carlingford Lough in the build-up to this year’s National, which is a bit of a surprise given he is a five-time Grade One winner and that John Kiely, his octogenarian trainer, is quite a character who has never had a runner in it before.

Carlingford Lough has been entered for the National in the past but, high in the weights and with other big-race options, has never taken part.

It could be that, aged 12, his window has passed but the dual Irish Gold Cup winner has been given a big chance by the handicapper, is proven in the mud and has hinted on several occasions he will stay long distances.

Carlingford Lough was below-par in the first half of the season but on three of those occasions he was equipped with a tongue tie - a piece of equipment never previously used on him - and it is now dispensed with.

He’s had a break since his last run over Christmas and would not be the first McManus-owned horse to bounce back with a bang.

Mark Walsh’s record in the race - six rides without completing - masks the fact he and Gallant Oscar were travelling with purpose when going their separate ways at the 18th fence two years ago.

ANIBALE FLY £3 win at 12-1 with William Hill:

Anibale Fly is the pick of the weights (PA)

Sometimes it does not pay to look beyond the obvious - even with all the vagaries that the Grand National provides - and Anibale Fly has to be on any shortlist.

The second-season chaser excelled himself when a staying-on third in the Cheltenham Gold Cup last month behind Native River and Might Bite.

The latter did his bit for the form when winning in fine style at Aintree on Thursday.

If the handicapper were able to reframe the weights, Anibale Fly would have 9lb more to shoulder.

Before the Gold Cup, run on heavy ground, he had also put up a superb display to thump Ucello Conti in a big-field handicap at Leopardstown over Christmas.

The niggles are whether that run at Cheltenham has left a mark, plus how he will take to the big fences.

However, he has had four weeks to recover from his exertions at the Festival and plenty of horses shine at Aintree without the benefit of previous experience.

He is one of four JP McManus-owned horses in the line-up and it is little wonder that Barry Geraghty, the owner’s retained jockey, has chosen him.

Geraghty is a cool cookie and boasts four wins over the National fences, winning the Grand National itself aboard Monty’s Pass in 2003.

REGAL ENCORE £1.50 each-way at 33-1 with Bet365 and William Hill:

Regal Encore: When he's good, he's very, very good (PA)

Regal Encore has been a hard horse to warm to over the years because of his inconsistency.

In the past two years the equine version of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde has enjoyed a couple of golden days at Ascot and his third in the Ladbrokes Trophy behind Total Recall and Whisper at Newbury in November stands close inspection.

But he has also been pulled up on seven occasions during this period - sometimes looking as if he would much rather be somewhere else.

He’s not the kind of horse you would risk your last fiver on but at 33-1 he warrants a punt because he’s a possible winner if he is on a going day.

Regal Encore runs off the same mark as in the Ladbrokes Trophy (formerly Hennessy Gold Cup) and he is one of those favourably handicapped because his latest win at Ascot came after the weights were framed in mid-February.

In last year’s National he kept on to be a never dangerous eighth, but he could hardly have done much better given he was steered wide and sat nearer last than first for much of the contest. On the good to soft going, they were never going to come back to him.

I’d imagine Richie McLernon employing similar tactics and this could easily be a year with a late twist or two given the sapping underfoot conditions

How To Bet £20 on the Grand National:

(Prices correct at 5pm on Friday - most bookmakers offer five or six places each-way. 188Bet are paying out on any horse who finishes in the first eight)

RAZ DE MAREE £3 each-way at a general 28-1

HOUBLON DES OBEAUX £2.50 each-way at a general 50-1

CARLINGFORD LOUGH £1.50 each-way at a general 50-1

REGAL ENCORE £1.50 each-way at 33-1 with Bet365 and William Hill

ANIBALE FLY £3 win at a general 12-1 with William Hill