Minella Indo Odds and Grand National Form 2024

Minella Indo is a dual Cheltenham Festival winner having taken the Albert Bartlett Hurdle in 2019 and the Gold Cup in 2021. To add to those victories he finished runner-up to Allaho in the Brown Advisory in 2020 and again to A Plus Tard when defending the Gold Cup in 2022. 

This season trainer Henry de Bromhead has decided to focus Minella Indo at Cross Country races and he was favourite for the Cross Country Chase at the Cheltenham Festival before that race was abandoned.

Despite recording two victories since his defeat to A Plus Tard in the Gold Cup, Minella Indo’s level of general form has seemed to drop and he has been well beaten in his three attempts at Grade One level since that defeat. It seems sensible then to drop his level of racing down to Cross Country races and he ran really well in defeat in that discipline when humping loads of weight in the Cross Country handicap at the Cheltenham December meeting. He finished fourth, not beaten far, behind Latenightpass. The bookmakers had made Minella Indo favourite for the Festival Cross Country on the back of that run and he has also been well backed for the AIntree Grand National. 

It’s difficult to forecast how Minella Indo will get on in an open handicap such as the Grand National for the first time. His victories in the Gold Cup and Albert Bartlett suggest that the extended distance at Aintree might not be a problem for him but the Grand National is always ultra competitive and Minella Indo is definitely not the horse he was. He is eleven-years-old now and set to carry over eleven stone so it would seem likely that he will find a few younger, better handicapped horses too good for him at Aintree.