Tomorrow at noon, the 2026 Grand National picture gets a whole lot sharper.
The second scratchings deadline falls on Tuesday 24th March, and it’s the one that actually matters. The first stage back in early March was largely housekeeping, injured horses, obvious non-runners, a few Mullins reserves quietly withdrawn without much fuss. Tomorrow is different. This is the post-Cheltenham reckoning. Trainers have now seen how their horses came out of the Festival. They know what shape they’re in, what targets make sense, and whether Aintree on April 11th is still the plan or a pipe dream that needs quietly shelving before anyone gets too attached to the idea.
Sixty-nine horses remain in contention going into tomorrow. Only 34 can line up on Grand National day. The mathematics alone tell you tomorrow is going to be brutal for someone.
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And yet, for all the drama that tomorrow brings, it’s worth stepping back and appreciating just how good this year’s Grand National is shaping up to be. Because when you look at the horses still standing, the storylines available to racing fans, and the genuine uncertainty at the top of the market, this has the ingredients of a truly memorable renewal of the world’s greatest race.
The horses at the top of the market are unlikely to come out tomorrow. Iroko, the ante-post market leader, has been trained specifically for this race all season by Oliver Greenall and Josh Guerriero in Cheshire. This is his race. Everything since last April has been pointed at Aintree, and connections have made no secret of it. He finished fourth last year, travelled powerfully for much of the race, and left everyone connected with him convinced the winning opportunity is coming. He’s not going anywhere tomorrow.
I Am Maximus, top weight on 11st 12lb and a former winner of this race, stays in. Willie Mullins’ superstar has been asked to shoulder that same burden twice now and finished second last year — a performance that would have won most renewals of this race. At his best, he’s arguably the classiest horse in the field. The question, as always with top weight in the National, is whether class alone is enough when the handicapper has loaded you up and Aintree’s 30 fences are waiting.
Nick Rockett, the defending champion, stays in too. The sight of Patrick Mullins steering his father’s horse past the line at Aintree last April was one of those genuinely spine-tingling sporting moments, a father and son combination landing the world’s most famous race together. Now Nick Rockett returns to defend his crown, bidding to become the first back-to-back winner since Tiger Roll completed that famous double in 2018 and 2019. That’s the scale of what he’s attempting. Gordon Elliott’s brilliant chaser managed it for two consecutive years but can Willie Mullins’ stable star do something just as historic? At his current price in the market, he represents extraordinary value for a proven Aintree winner with the right connections and the right preparation behind him.
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Grangeclare West deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as any of them. His Bobbyjo Chase win at Fairyhouse last month was a genuine statement of intent as he powered clear despite a crashing mistake at the last fence, showing the kind of toughness and resolve that Grand National winners are made of. More importantly, he was arguably unlucky not to win this race last April. He travelled beautifully that day, jumped brilliantly for most of the race, and then a costly error at the final fence robbed him of his momentum at the worst possible moment. That score remains very much unsettled. He’ll be here tomorrow, and he’ll be at Aintree on April 11th with a serious chance.
But further down the weights? That’s where tomorrow gets genuinely compelling.
There are horses sitting right on the cut line — hovering around that 34th, 35th, 36th position in the weights — whose connections will be wrestling with a real decision tonight and tomorrow morning. Do you confirm for a race that could define your horse’s career, knowing everything needs to go right just to guarantee a run? Or do you accept the situation, target something more realistic, and preserve your horse for another day? These are not easy calls. They involve months of planning, significant financial investment, and the kind of emotional attachment to a horse that anyone outside racing finds hard to fully understand.
Every horse that comes out tomorrow shuffles the order. Every withdrawal hands a run to a horse that had been sweating nervously on the sidelines, waiting to see if the numbers fall their way. That’s the human drama of this stage that doesn’t always get the attention it deserves is the quiet decisions made in yards across Britain and Ireland that determine who gets their Aintree dream and who has to wait another year.
Then there’s the matter of the new rules, because 2026 brings a genuinely significant change to how the Grand National declaration process works and it’s a change worth understanding properly.
For the first time in the race’s history, final declarations move to a 72-hour window. The confirmed field of 34 runners will be announced on Wednesday 8th April, a full 24 hours earlier than in previous years. Aintree have also expanded the reserve list from four horses to six, giving connections hovering just outside the cut a meaningfully better chance of making the race if late withdrawals come in before 1pm the day before.
On the surface it sounds like admin. In reality it changes the experience for everyone involved. Punters get a full extra day to make informed ante-post decisions before the race. Broadcasters and media can plan their coverage properly. Trainers on the bubble get a slightly less chaotic final week. And for the millions of casual fans who have a horse in the office sweepstake, knowing the confirmed field two days out rather than one makes the whole build-up feel more real, more engaged, more worth caring about.
The Grand National is not like other races. It never has been. It’s the one race in the calendar where the declaration process genuinely moves the market, where a single unexpected withdrawal can transform a horse sitting just outside the cut into a confirmed runner with a real chance overnight. The 72-hour window and the expanded reserve list are Aintree acknowledging that reality and leaning into it. Good on them.
By tomorrow afternoon, RHR will have the updated picture. We’ll know who’s been cut, who’s moved up, who’s quietly slipped into the confirmed field after a bigger name stepped aside. Between now and April 8th is when those final 34 are confirmed and this story is going to move fast and the market is going to move with it.
Keep an eye on the page. Because Aintree is coming, the field is taking shape, and this year’s Grand National already has everything it needs to be something truly special.
We’ll see you on the other side of tomorrow’s noon deadline
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