The Grand National
grandnational.org.uk is your complete guide to the Grand National and an indispensable aid to finding the winner of the most famous and prestigious horse race in the world. Click here to bookmark this site.
The National is one of the highlights of the entire sporting year and the race captures the imagination of millions around the world, thanks to its ability to consistently produce thrilling finishes and heart-warming stories, as horse and rider try to conquer the mighty Aintree fences.
The 2009 Grand National was won by 100/1 rank-outsider Mon Mome ridden by Grand National debutant jockey Liam Treadwell. He is the biggest-priced winner since Foinavon in 1967 and the first winner trained by a woman (Venetia Williams) since the days of Jenny Pitman. The horse came 10th in the Grand National last year and carried 11 stone for the race.
In a race delayed by two false starts, the winner pulled away after jumping the last of the 30 fences in the 162nd running of the Grand National to win by 12 lengths. 
Comply or Die, a 14-1 shot who won last year, was second. My Will (8-1) finished third, ahead of State of Play (14-1). The favourite, Butler's Cabin (7-1) ridden by Tony McCoy, finished 7th.
"I had the perfect run through the race," Treadwell said. "He jumped brilliant for me...he gave me such a great ride. He was an absolute pleasure to ride. He is so genuine."
Mon Mome's trainer, Venetia Williams, whose career as an amateur jockey ended shortly after falling in the 1988 Grand National became only the second woman after 1983 and 1995 winner Jenny Pitman to train a National winner. "It was just unbelievable," Williams said. "The owner was watching the wrong horse for the first part of the race and she thought it was out the back. I'm so proud of the horse and so proud of Liam for giving him such a good ride." Click here for our full race review.
Mon Mome is now finished for the season, and racing diehards and occasional punters alike will have to wait another 12 months to witness what the 2010 Grand National will throw up. In the meantime, click here for the latest free bets and special offers from the leading online bookmakers, some of whom are already offering odds on the 2010 National.
In many ways it is the history of this great event that makes it so special, and the race has made the likes of Red Rum, Aldaniti, Jenny Pitman and Ginger McCain household names. See our Grand National history section for more details.
With history in mind, we are advocates of learning lessons from the past when trying to find the National winners of the future. 
Thus, our site includes a Grand National trends section dedicated to identifying those vital statistics that all successful horses have had in common.
For example, did you know that only Red Rum has managed to carry more than 11st 5lbs to victory since 1957?
Just as noteworthy is the fact that no seven-year-old has won for 69 years and we have to go back another 28 years to find the last successful six-year-old. In fact, since 1992, only four of the 34 six and seven-year-olds to take their chance have even completed the course. Experience, therefore, counts in the Grand National and 10 of the last 16 winners were aged either 9 or 10. In that period there has also been one eight-year-old winner and two eleven and twelve-year-old winners, although the last teenager to win the race was 86 years ago and none have made the frame in the National since 1969.
For those wanting to see this magnificent event live, we have all of the information you’ll need to make the most of your visit to Aintree, including information on getting to Aintree, ticket details and a summary of all of the enclosures and facilities at the racecourse many of which have been significantly upgraded in recent seasons.
The Aintree Grand National was first run in 1839 and the famous four-and-a-half mile marathon now attracts a worldwide television audience of 600 million people. 
Bruce Hobbs, aged 17, was the youngest winning jockey in 1938, on Battleship - the
smallest horse ever to win. Dick Saunders, aged 48, was the oldest successful rider on Grittar in 1982, his first and only Grand National ride.
As well as its fascinating past, Aintree’s unique course contributes to the mystique surrounding the event.
The fence-building programme at Aintree starts approximately a month before the Grand National meeting is run, with spruce sourced and transported from the Lake District. The annual cost is about £20,000.
The Grand National remains the ultimate test of horse and jockey. The race comprises two full circuits of a 2¼ mile (3,600 metres) course, where challengers face 30 of the most testing fences in the world of jump racing including Becher’s Brook and The Chair, now two of the most well known landmarks in the country.
When it was first run at Aintree in 1839, the race featured a solid brick wall as one of the obstacles, although that was abandoned after five years.
No horse has run in the Grand National more times than Manifesto, who competed in eight renewals of the event between 1895 and 1904. Manifesto won the race twice, in 1897 and 1899, and finished third on three occasions.
The Grand National is also one of the rare major sporting events in which amateurs can, and do, take on professionals. This applies to both trainers and jockeys.
Jenny Pitman is the only woman to have trained a Grand National winner, capturing the race for the first time with Corbiere in 1983. She succeeded again with Royal Athlete in 1995 and finished second with Garrison Savannah in 1991.
Becher's Brook, the sixth fence on the first circuit, was named after Captain Martin Becher. He was unseated from his mount, Conrad, and fell into the ditch when leading in 1839. The obstacle bore his name from that day onwards.
The least number of horses to complete was two, in 1928: Tipperary Tim and Billy Barton (who remounted). In 2001, when Red Marauder beat Smarty, only four horses completed, two of these being remounted.
The biggest Grand National field occurred in 1929 when 66 runners faced the starter - a record number for any horse race ever. The smallest field was in 1883 when just 10 horses and jockeys competed.