The Grand National 2008 takes place at Aintree racecourse. The Grand National has 40 Grand National horses all hoping to emulate 2006 winner, Numbersixvalverde and win the Grand National. Bet on the Grand National favourite, Dun D oire. Enjoy your Grand National betting online and sit back and enjoy the race. The greatest race on earth takes place at Aintree on saturday.The Grand National run over a distance of four and a half miles and thirty obstacles the ultimate test for man and beast. 

The current favourite at around 6/1 is Cloudy Lane trained by D.McCain jnr[son of Ginger trainer of the one and only Red Rum].Owner Trevor Hemmings is also represented by previous winner and top weight Hedgehunter.Champion trainer Paul Nicholls is looking to land a famous double following Denmans victory in the Gold Cup.His likely two runners are course winner Mr Pointment and Turko.Nicholls is particuarly keen to win this race as he trained last years winner Silver Birch before selling him at Doncaster Sales following injury.

Irish trainers are looking to extend their winning sequence to four with leading hope Slim Pickings trained by Tom Taffe.The Welsh wizard Peter Bowen saddles McKelvey with the international flavour is added to by L Ami from France.Another son of a former winning trainer is David Pipe who runs Comply or Die for leading owner David Johnson. Have i mentioned the winner, who knows but the main thing about the Grand National is to get involved have a bet and get the thrill of following your selection through the race.

Why Should I Bet on the Grand National Online?

Betting online holds many advantages over placing your bet in a betting shop.
1. You can bet from the comfort of your own home, there is no need to make a journey to your nearest bookmakers.
2. It is both easy and secure to place bets online with betting shops that you recognise.
3. Free bets are available from a number of online bookmakers.
4. You can compare odds from 17 UK bookmakers and betting exchanges to find the best odds on your selection.
5. Special Grand National promotions are available from online bookmakers. e.g each way bets may include an extra place, paying out if your horse finishes in the first five places rather than normal first four places.

Do You Remember The First time you had a bet on the Grand National?

For plenty of us (of a certain age) that meant giving your Dad 50p of your pocket money to have on The Pilgarlic each-way (look it up) or for those of you a bit younger, maybe Earth Summit. One thing is for sure though, since those days, there's so much more choice. So, with more bookmakers than ever, all with offers to tempt you in on National day, rather than give you another boring A-Z of the runners, here's a few do's and dont's for the big day.

1) Most bbokmakers push the boat out and on the day of the race will be offering some great "bet matching" offers, often up to £100 for first-timers. It's silly not to take advantage - it doesn't take long to open an account over the phone or on the net - so if you are going to have a bet, you may as well have a free one too! Just make sure you read the t's and c's though.

2) Have a shop around. Don't just bet with the first bookmaker you stumble across on saturday. A few of them will be paying 1-2-3-4-5 e/w. Again, it's only common sense to use them - imagine your 100/1 shot finishing fifth, only to find you've backed it e/w with a bookie only paying first four. How willl you feel then? Gutted!

3) Make sure you take a price. It's very rare for horses to drift badly on the day, but they can collapse in price - Monkerhostin and Papillon in recent years were both big prices in the morning, backed down to single figure prices in the afternoon - so although it can be a bit of a pain (particularly if you're putting on the family bets!) it's a worthwhile exercise. Imagine Aunty Doris' face when she finds out she's got 33's about that 14/1 winner. Must be a drink in it for you. Put simply - everything gets backed on the day, such is the spread of money.

4) Don't get lured into "special" bets, such as "how many fallers at the first" or "how many will complete the course". These are often extremely difficult to predict, and effectively rely on a lot of guesswork and good fortune. And don't, repeat DON'T, think of backing any of those bets that involve a group of named horses finishing. They never win. Ever.

5) Having said that though, for those of you happy to make a profit at any price, you can often find a bit of value about individual runners to complete the course. Look for the slow-but-steady merchants. You can often find odds-against prices about them completing. It's a bet well worth considering as these days the National is a bit more of a classy affair, and the horses are safer conveyances than once was the case.

6) And lastly, don't be afraid of backing more than one horse in the race. This is just about the only race in the year when you can get some fancy prices about some classy horses - don't let the opportunity pass you by.

So there you go. there's plenty of ways to make a profit on the National - just make sure you follow the rules - and the best of luck finding the winner. (Oh you want that too, eh? Try a few quid e/w on Simon then - it's simple!)