Three to follow from the 2026 Aintree Grand National Meeting…

Aintree done and dusted for another season…

Mullins, Townend and I AM MAXIMUS, rightly so, made most of the headlines… winning the National from a mark of OR 168 is quite something… only three others have even RUN in the race from higher marks in the last 29 renewals (SUNY BAY twice and MASTER OATS) and you would not put it past the horse winning the race again next season… it looks the absolute ideal test for him…

Away from the big race it was DAN SKELTON who dominated the three days… his overall stats reading…

6/36 | 19% S/R | +£119.85 BFLSP – W&P 16/32 | 50% S/R

58% above exp

All those Dan Skelton winners came in Class 1 races and with horses aged 9 or younger… which tightened his meeting stats to…

6/24 | 25% S/R | +£127.95 BFLSP – W&P 14/24 | 58 S/R

99% above exp

…which are seriously strong stats at such a competitive meeting…

What really caught my eye, however, was the fact that 5 of those 6 winners were yet to win at a higher level than Class 3… which maybe suggests he’s really starting to master the knack of getting his horses to peak at the big meetings, without bottoming them out unnecessarily earlier in the season…

I think it’s safe to say that Dan Skelton is likely starting a period of domination that we have seen previously from the likes of Martin Pipe and Paul Nicholls… indeed he may yet rule UK racing in an even more dominating fashion than that two did in their pomp… given he seems to be banging in the numbers that Pipe achieved, mixed in with the big race success that Nicholls achieved!!

He’s got a way to go yet of course… but the signs are there… and unless the others starting bucking their ideas up it could be one way traffic for team Skeleton for the foreseeable…

Away from the impending Dan Skelton supremacy… I’ve just completed my ‘NTF Aintree Grand National Meeting Notes‘, with members of the NTF Spring Festival Service picking up the info-packed 16-page guide on Tuesday… covering a chunky 47-horses… and below I’ve plucked three horses from those notes for you to follow… one from each day of the meeting…

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Three to follow from the 2026 Aintree Grand National meeting…

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🟩🟨 SEVEN STARS (A King)

6th in the Grade 2 Mares’ Bumper – Thursday 9th

A solid run from Alan King’s 5yo, staying on strongly after getting a tad outpaced as the race started to reach the business end… worth keeping an eye on where she goes next as Alan King has some solid stats with his mares that ran in this on their next start…

A King | mares with 3+ career starts | ran in the Mares’ Bumper at Aintree Festival LTO (DIDN’T WIN) | DSLR 150+ = 8/16 | 50% S/R | +£25.92 – W&P 13/16 | 81% S/R

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🟦⬜ BALLYKINLAR (M Bowen)

7th in the William Hill Handicap Hurdle – Friday 10th

Improved on his effort at Cheltenham last time out and he looks the type Mickey Bowen should do well with over the summer months… this was his second run for his new yard and the 7yo holds form of… 3/8, 2p in the June-Oct period… and I suspect Bowen is just priming him for some Summer targets…

I’d have loose Prime Conditions for him as…

2m2f+ | Yielding/Good to Soft or quicker | May-Oct = 231112 (3/6, 2p – all 3 career wins)

…all his wins to date have come on RH tracks and he may be at his absolute optimum that way round, although I wouldn’t be discounting him on Left-Handed tracks just yet…

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🗒️🏇🗒️

🟩🟦 NO QUESTIONS ASKED (B Pauling)

5th in the Maghull Novices’ Chase – Saturday 11th

The signs are that he’s best away from Left-Handed tracks… with his course direction splits now reading… RH = 5/7, 1p | F8 = 1/1 | LH = 0/6, 2p… I’ve got loose Prime Conditions for him as…

Nov-Feb | NOT LH Tracks = 13112111 (6/8, 1p – all 6 career wins)

…he’s also 3 from 3 on seasonal debut and he’s worth looking out for at the start of next season, especially when getting his PC to attack…

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📝 Full NTF 2026 Aintree Festival Notes…

The above three horses have been taken from the FULL NTF members guide… 

The guide stretches to a chunky 16-pages of info, stats, trends, pointers, angles and opinions, covering 47 horses… and includes…

✅ Prime Conditions for specific horses

✅ Next Time Out stats, pointers and angles for individual races

✅ Trainer Stats

✅ Sire Stats

✅ Owner Stats

And much more…

📩 Download your copy today HERE>>>

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Cheers – Ben (NTF)

p.s. Make sure you don’t miss out on any future NTF posts and free guides by hooking up to the free mailing list HERE…

Get all previous NTF Blog Posts HERE>>>