Grand National Tips: Sam Waley-Cohen's Fancies + What It Takes To Win The National

Sam Waley-Cohen shares his Aintree Grand National tips as we get ever closer to the big race.

He reveals his top picks for the race, offers insights on what it takes to win the National, and recounts the strategy behind his memorable victory aboard 50/1 shot Noble Yeats in 2022.

Grand National Tips: Sam Waley-Cohen’s Fancies For Aintree Showpiece

I think Iroko. It’s been his target. He looks the right profile, I think he'll run a great race.

The Greenalls have been great friends. I used to race against Tom and Ollie as amateurs, so it'd be wonderful for that to come off for them.

I can also see Bravemansgame running a big race. He looks well handicapped versus his peak. For one with longer odds, I quite like the look of him. It’s still a race with plenty of jeopardy. So, you don't just have to go for the short price ones.

Oliver’s father Lord Daresbury was so closely associated with Aintree for so long and for Iroko to win would be one of the great stories that the race keeps throwing up, wouldn’t it?

Exactly. He was integral to making the race what it is today, no question at all. So, it's in the blood and it would be great.

As a 7-time Winner Over Grand National Fences – What does it take To Win in terms of approach and strategy?

The race has changed a lot but it goes without saying you need the right horse. Some horses grow and love it and some horses shrink and hate it and it's still true today as it was ever.

I first rode it in 2004. I first won a race there in 2005. The fences obviously have changed a lot over the 18 years, and even since when I stopped racing. The truth is that the horses that loved it when they were the old-style fences, took to it and grew, and it's exactly the same now.

I rode horses you thought were going to be brilliant, and they didn't take to it at all - you don't know if you've got the right horse until it's taken them on!

And then you need a horse with real courage because there is a different level of hurly burly, a different atmosphere. The Aintree Grand National paddock is like no other paddock in racing in terms of the atmosphere around it and the razzamatazz.

So, you need a horse that can cope with that, one that has that sort of mentality. Many races are lost before you get to the start, horses can get totally intimidated by it.

You've got to get through the tunnel - getting through the tunnel onto the racecourse is a challenge. You need a horse that can cope with the day, cope with the atmosphere and be lifted by that, not be intimidated by that.

There seems to be less pressure and people enjoy the racing more at Aintree?

I agree, the Grade 1s at Aintree don't feel quite as high-octane as the Grade Ones at Cheltenham. And I guess often, you do get an outright winner. The racing isn't always as tight as at Cheltenham.

It's also towards the end of the season. The season's sort of baked, more or less. Cheltenham makes or breaks your season in so many ways and then there's Punchestown to wrap things up, that’s if anyone has anything left in the tank!

Winning on Noble Yeats – Grand National Race Tactics and Approach

The perceived wisdom is front third, find a bit of space on the first circuit, just try and get jumping and still get a nice rhythm. The race has become more tactical than it probably was historically because the fences are more forgiving.

The real challenge is to relax your horse, get in a rhythm, get balanced, and don't do too much. And then try and save something because a lot of horses don't get home.

In the end, the winner is the horse that's well handicapped and well enough handicapped for the distance. It's how you can do as little as possible for as long as possible and sneak yourself into the race.

The Perfect Career Finale

It was a really weird few days for me - on the Thursday I rode Jett in the Foxhunters' who I'd ridden in the National the year before.

As a family we’d given the trophy in 2005 for the Foxhunters’ in memory of my brother Thoams who died from cancer. The first year that we gave it, we won it with Katarino.

Jett was the hot favourite for the Foxhunters' in 2022 and I had it in my mind’s eye that he was going to win this trophy and top and tail my Aintree life by winning it.

But Jett ran an absolutely horrendous race. By the time I got to the first fence, he didn't want to be there. By the time I got to about the fourth fence, I didn't want to be there. And by about the sixth, we were thinking about when we could pull up.

After that race I announced my retirement would be after the National, which is always an emotional moment.

In the race itself I remember seeing Noble Yeats as I came into the paddock. And he  did not look like a horse you want to get on! He was little and brown and hairy - you definitely wouldn't have selected him.

You always sort of pick on the experiences you had before to learn, so we decided to put earplugs on him so he didn’t get overwhelmed in the paddock and to settle him down.

There was a previous National when I got stuck in the tunnel. A horse in front of me got anxious and wouldn’t go through. I got stuck in the middle with horses behind me and the horse wouldn't go in front and we basically lost our race in the blinking tunnel.

That was 2017, and I was riding The Young Master. By the time I got onto the racecourse, he'd completely lost the plot. And that did not go to plan.

So, in 2022 we decided we'd put the earplugs on to try to ensure we don't get stuck in the tunnel. I was not going to go | into the tunnel until the horse in front of us had cleared the tunnel so we don't get stuck in that again.

And so all these like little bits that you picked up from previous misadventure, came into play a little bit.

Basically, he's just a very peculiar horse, so you have to sort of charm him along a little bit. I'd ridden him at Cheltenham at the festival where he took ages to get him into rhythm in the Ultima.

When I pulled him out and showed him some light, he closed up the gap. He always kept plenty for himself. In the National, he jumped off characteristically slowly, as he always does.

The first circuit, or at least the first half of the first circuit was everything you don't want to be;  not close enough to the pace, not jumping very fluently and not really having a proper cut.

As we jumped the Canal turn, you just started building your confidence, enjoying it and rolling on a bit more. We actually tagged onto the back of the sort of front half.

The train was rolling along. I used to like to try and get on the bend coming back off the National course onto the Mildmay course. You can make up a bit of distance, if you're four or five wide, you actually make up a length or so.

The move that really made a difference was at the fence before The Chair. I got right in behind Sean Bowen and got a bit unsighted on the inside and Noble Yeats made a hash of it.

I knew I had got to find some space for him because I was not going down to The Chair stuck in this pocket. We were going to meet a bad end if we do that.

He then ran on, because you angle out towards the elbow to get to The Chair, there was a space on the inner.

Retrospectively, if it hadn’t been my last ride, I'd never have been brave enough because Sean would have had his revenge on me! But I managed to slip up his inner and got in a really nice position.

I look back at the video and there’s a view of Sean sort of looking at me going and asking, ‘What are you doing there?!’ I told him, ‘I didn't mean to be here!’ Because I'd gone up his inner, which is a sort of cardinal offense really, I had to keep going forward.

By the time he went out for the second circuit, he was exactly where I wanted him to be, which was getting a nice lead, getting towed along. And I could just let him jump and enjoy himself and keep him traveling along. And then obviously the race is on.

I probably had ridden the National course 40 times and was probably competitive in 20 finishes on the Grand National course. I really knew where I wanted to be.

But I met the last on completely the wrong stride and basically had to just keep my hands still and hope to hell that Noble Yeats sorted it out which he did. He fiddled it, jumped it neatly and  that was the sort of moment of destiny.

Noble Yeats has a real turn of foot. He is hard to get running, but when he does he's really quite quick. Once he was gone that was it and there was no holding back.

Afterwards everyone's congratulating you and the other jockeys are congratulating you and it's just totally overwhelming.

My brother came up and then my Dad; everyone I knew was there and basically crying. It was quite a surreal moment and then, once you're weighed in, it's a whirlwind.

2022 Grand National Celebrations

We had about 20 friends to celebrate. My kids were there, my parents were there, my wife was there. So, we all got together and had champagne. I hadn't changed and was still in my silks. That was just a real elation after that.

There’s a moment when you ride your last race where you think, ‘Well I hope I don't break my neck in this one.’ but I had fulfilled my boyhood dream. Everybody was going mad basically and then because the odds were so long everyone had made a small fortune.

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