UPDATE: On 18th March, National favourite was Inothewayurthinkin pulled out of the race. Off the back of a stunning Cheltenham Gold Cup win, trainer Gavin Cromwell and owner JP McManus decided that it could prove to be a race too far for the seven year old. ” It’s all about doing the right thing for the horse.” said Cromwell. The new favourite for the 2025 Grand National is Intense Raffles at 7-1 at time of writing.
At the time of writing, the 2025 Grand National is less than a month away and, while further declaration stages are due in March before the final field is revealed on April 3, the ante-post market has taken shape since the weights were published on February 11. Currently, favourite for the £500,000 first prize money is Inothewayurthinkin (3/1), owned by John P. McManus and trained by Gavin Cromwell in Navan, Co. Meath. Inothewayurthinkin was 8/1 prior to a storming Cheltenham Gold Cup win on Friday 14th February, beating favourite Galopin Des Champs into second, as he attempted to gain his third Gold Cup victory in a row.
A seven-year-old gelding by Derby runner-up Walk In The Park, Inothewayurthinkin readily justified favouritism in the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup at the 2024 Cheltenham Festival and followed up with another comfortable victory in the Mildmay Novices’ Chase at Aintree a month later. In that latter Grade 1 contest, he beat Iroko, who is potentially just 1lb better off in the National, by 4 lengths, so must have every chance of confirming that form.
In 2024/25 so far, Inothewayurthinkin has once again been highly tried, competing without success in the John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase, the Savills Chase at Leopardstown and Irish Gold Cup, over the same course and distance. Nevertheless, his closing fourth, beaten 7¼ lengths by the winner, Galopin Des Champs, suggests that his handicap mark of 160 is more than fair, for all that he is 15lb higher in the weights than the last time he ran in a handicap.
Inothewayurthinkin has yet to win beyond three and a quarter miles, so his stamina for the extra mile or so of the Grand National distance has to be taken on trust. Likewise, he has yet to win on going faster than soft, but the whole of the National Course is routinely watered to maintain the going on the soft side of good, so he should not be unduly incovenienced by underfoot conditions.