Grand National prediction: Most backed horses revealed with more than £350,000 already staked by punters

THE Grand National is back and ready to be bigger than ever – but can you achieve the holy grail of punting and find the winner?

The Aintree showpiece is notoriously tricky to predict.

Anything can happen over the 30 fences, with favourites crashing out and 100-1 shots romping home.

Already punters have been piling their cash into the market on the Betfair exchange.

Often that can prove a more telling way of where the money is REALLY going before a race.

Sun Racing has gone through the exchange and had a look at the most matched horses on a market where already more than £350,000 has been stakes.

Grand National 2022 most matched horses

1 Any Second Now

When you see a horse running in the green and gold of Irish billionaire JP McManus, then you know it has been bought to win.

And that is exactly the case with this Ted Walsh-trained ten-year-old, who saw off other hot fancy Escaria Ten by a nose when last seen winning at Fairyhouse last month.

Any Second Now was third last year.

That was a good finish considering he was badly hampered at the 12th fence.

At the time of writing some £38,017 has been matched on the selection.

2 Escaria Ten

Gordon Elliott knows a thing or three about winning the world’s most famous race.

The trainer of dual champion Tiger Roll looks to have pinned his hopes on Escaria Ten this year.

He has run just twice this year, a pipe opener at Gowran Park in January and narrow defeat to Any Second Now last time out.

There’s no doubt the whole season has been planned out backwards from Aintree and some £23,518 has been matched on the horse.

3 Delta Work

Another Elliott runner coming into the race in fine fettle.

Delta Work was booed when beating Tiger Roll on his farewell at Cheltenham Festival.

It must be said his form before that wasn’t entirely convincing and conditions certainly played into his hooves at the Festival.

But he could be coming to the boil at just the right time.

Some £21,725 has been matched on Delta Work.

4 Enjoy D’allen

Recently bought by McManus (who won the National last year with Minella Times) with this race in mind, Enjoy D’allen could be worth a punt.

The horse was trained by Ciaran Murphy, a carpenter by trade in Ireland.

He has previous with big winners after being involved in pre-training with Tiger Roll and 2016 National winner Rule The World.

Murphy reckons Enjoy D’allen is ‘made for Aintree’ and £18,558 has been matched on the horse.

The way the exchange works is your bet to win a horse is ‘matched’ against another punter willing to lay the horse – who are betting on the horse not to win.

FREE BETS GET OVER £2,000 IN SIGN UP OFFERS HERE

Commercial content notice: Taking one of the bookmaker offers featured in this article may result in a payment to The Sun. 18+. T&Cs apply. Begambleaware.org

Remember to gamble responsibly

A responsible gambler is someone who:

• Establishes time and monetary limits before playing
• Only gambles with money they can afford to lose
• Never chases their losses
• Doesn’t gamble if they’re upset, angry or depressed
• Gamcare – www.gamcare.org.uk
• Gamble Aware – www.begambleaware.org