If you are still looking for a tip for tomorrow's Grand National at Aintree, then take a look at this. British Lottery betting brand Lottoland.ie have reviewed the last 50 Grand Nationals, and have picked out a few of the key trends from those winners in order to deduce the horse most likely to win the Grand National in 2017.
Some of the are superstitious, while others are more practical. For example, the horse wearing number six has won more often (seven times) than any other number over the past 50 years. These include the likes of Rag Trade in 1976, Mr Frisk in 1990 and most recently Don't Push It in 2010, giving that number a winning percentage of 14%. 50/1 shot Roi Des Francs, trained by Gordon Elliot, is wearing number six at Aintree tomorrow.
The next most successful numbers have been four and eight - each have had four winners each.
Elsewhere, the average age of the winning horse in the Grand National over the past 50 years has worked out at 9.88. If you want to trust this metric, the ten-year-old runners this year are Perfect Candidate, Tenor Nivernais, O'Faolains Boy and Just A Par.
Weight has been analysed, too. The average weight of a horse handicap in the Grand National is 10st 9lbs – so Just A Par, MeasureOfMyDreams, Raz de Maree and Stellar Notion fit the bill with handicaps of that number.
That means, after all of that research, the company have worked out that the Nicholls-trained Just A Par is the most likely to win, and is currently available at 40/1 ahead of tomorrow's race.