I Am Maximus records best rating by a Grand National winner this century

I AM MAXIMUS produced the best performance this century by a Grand National winner when taking the Aintree showpiece last Saturday, eclipsing the 165 which Tiger Roll recorded when winning for the second time in 2019.

The eight-year-old carried 11-6 to victory which was a big burden by recent Aintree standards. Since the days of Red Rum, only Many Clouds, who won under 11-9 in 2015, has carried a bigger weight to victory.

His win under Paul Townend for trainer Willie Mullins and owner J. P. McManus, saw him take his Timeform rating from an already high-class 161 to a top-class 167.

In doing so he ranked higher than many National greats of recent years, including Many Clouds who ran to 164 when he was successful, as did Neptune Collonges in 2012.

Hedgehunter too ranks highly among this century’s Grand National winners on 162 alongside Don’t Push It who gave McManus his first Grand National success in 2010.

Being a handicap, it’s not necessarily the winner who records a high rating, and the McManus-owned Any Second Now also ran to 165 when runner-up to Noble Yeats in 2022, conceding the winner almost a stone. Noble Yeats himself ran to 164 when fourth under top weight last year but never looked like repeating that feat this time.

You have to go back to 1998 to find a better performance than the one put up by I Am Maximus. Suny Bay achieved a rating of 171 from his second to Earth Summit that year, carrying 12-0 and conceding 23lb to the winner. That effort was all the more creditable given the very testing conditions which resulted in only six completing (one of those remounted) and the first two finishing a distance clear of the rest.

Heavy ground had looked on the cards for this year’s race earlier in the week, though drier weather later on resulted in going no worse than soft on the big day.

A standing start and the shortened run to the first fence ensured a less frenetic gallop than usual and a remarkably incident-free race unfolded in which 21 of the 32 starters (two short of the new reduced maximum after a couple of non-runners) completed, most of whom were still in contention on the long run from three out. The most notable of the four who unseated was last year’s winner Corach Rambler who blundered at the first and then fell when loose at the next.

After saving every yard up the inner under a patient ride in mid-division, I Am Maximus was produced to lead after being switched approaching the Elbow and stormed clear to win by seven and a half lengths, such a clear-cut margin seeming most unlikely given how many were still in close touch jumping the last.

The older trio who chased I Am Maximus home – Delta Work, Minella Indo and Galvin – are all Grade 1 winners who’ve been Gold Cup horses in the past – Minella Indo the 2021 Gold Cup winner and 2022 runner-up – and while all three would have contested the Cross Country at Cheltenham had it taken place, they contributed to a high-class result overall which ran deeper than just the winner.

With a minimum BHA rating of 146 needed just to make the cut for this year’s Grand National, it points to a much ‘classier’ type of horse being needed for the race nowadays rather than the dour, and often older, staying handicappers of the past.