Grand National favorite named

The favorite for Saturday’s Grand National is a horse that already knows both sides of this race: I Am Maximus won it in 2024, then came back and finished second in 2025, and now heads the 34-horse field for the 4:00 p.m. British Summer Time start at Aintree on April 11, 2026. He is carrying 11 stone 12 pounds, which makes him the top weight in a handicap race designed to slow the best horses by giving them more to carry than lower-rated rivals. That matters extra at Aintree because the National is not a quick two-mile sprint but a four-mile, two-furlong chase over 30 fences, so every pound has to be hauled over a course built to expose weak jumping and fading stamina. The late twist is that Nick Rockett, last year’s winner, is out after being reported to be coughing on Thursday morning, so the defending champion will not line up at all. Gordon Elliott’s Pied Piper, the first reserve, moves into the race instead. Nick Rockett’s absence changes more than one name on the racecard because the 2025 first, second, third and fourth had been on course to meet again, and now the rematch loses the defending winner while keeping the next three home. It also strengthens Willie Mullins’ grip on the race even after the withdrawal, because he still has eight runners left in the final field, including I Am Maximus and last year’s third-place finisher Grangeclare West. The jockey picture is part of the story too: Paul Townend is set to ride I Am Maximus again, while Patrick Mullins had already chosen Grangeclare West before Nick Rockett was ruled out. The horse just behind I Am Maximus in the betting is Grangeclare West, who was third in 2025 and won the Bobbyjo Chase at Fairyhouse in February, which is why this is starting to look less like a lottery and more like a sequel. There is history hanging over the favorite as well, because Sky Sports notes that no horse since Red Rum has won the National, lost it, and then won it back again. I Am Maximus is trying to do exactly that on Saturday. The rest of the market shows how concentrated this race has become around a few familiar stables and owners: Iroko and Jagwar are both prominent for Oliver Greenall and Josh Guerriero, and both, like I Am Maximus, run in the green-and-gold colors of owner J. P. McManus. So the shape of Saturday’s race is now unusually clear for a sport built on chaos: one former winner, one missing defending champion, one powerhouse trainer with a crowd of live runners, and one old Aintree question that still decides everything after four miles and 30 fences — who is still jumping when the rest have stopped.