At the time of writing, the 2027 Grand National is fully 18 months in the future, but the three most successful trainers in the last two decades are still in the training ranks and there are plenty more who have demonstrated their credentials by winning, or going close to winning, the National in recent years.
Willie Mullins, for example, has been the perennial champion trainer in his native Ireland since 2007/08 and, more recently, champion trainer on the opposite side of the Irish Sea in both 2023/24 and 2024/25. Mullins saddled his first Grand National winner, Hedgehunter, back in 2005 but, having increased his emphasis on the Britsh trainers’ title, entered eight horses in 2024, winning with I Am Maximus, and seven in 2025, winning with Nick Rockett.
Likewise, Gordon Elliott, whose dominance of Irish National Hunt Racing is second only to that of Mullins, has saddled three Grand National winners, namely Silver Birch, in 2007, and Tiger Roll, who was a back-to-back winner in 2018 and 2019. The Cullentra House trainer was, like Mullins, mob-handed in the Grand National in 2024 and 2025 and, if he continues in similar vein, further success is surely only a matter of time.
Domestically, Scottish trainer Lucinda Russell, who nowadays holds a joint licence with Michael Scudamore, does not operate on quite the same scale as her Irish counterparts, but nonethless has two Grand National winners to her name, courtesy of One For Arthur, in 2017, and Corach Rambler, in 2023. Derek Fox, who rode both Russell-trained winners, is the only jockey to have won the National more than once in the last 20 years. Former champion jockeys Harry Skelton, 36, and Sean Bowen, 28, have both drawn a blank in the Grand National from 10 rides apiece, so far, but may still have chances to break their duck, as may the likes of Mark Walsh, 39, and Sam Twiston-Davies, 33.