When is the 2025 Welsh Grand National?

The Welsh Grand National is one of the oldest, and most important handicaps in all of National Hunt racing. 

Open to horses of four or older, the Welsh National is run at Chepstow racecourse in Monmouthshire.

The distance they travel is 3 miles and 6½ furlongs, which becomes incredibly testing when the ground turns heavy, as it often does at Chepstow over Christmas.

Ely racecourse in Cardiff hosted the first Welsh Grand National in 1895. Caerleon racecourse hosted several runnings of the Welsh National after the second World War, before Chepstow became this handicap's premanent home.

Bookmakers Coral have been sponsoring the Welsh Grand National since 1973, making it one of the longest-running partnerships in the entire sport.

The Welsh Grand National used to be staged during late February. However, in order to attract horses who might wish to run at the Cheltenham Festival, organisers moved the race back to December 27th in the late 1970s, and the calibre of the horses who enter the Welsh Grand National has risen ever since.

Jenny Pitman's Corbiere won the 1982 Welsh Grand National, before going on to win the Grand National at Aintree that same season. 1983 saw Pitman's Burrough Hill Lad claim the honours at Chepstow, and John Francome's mount went on to Cheltenham to win the Gold Cup just a few months later.

Luke Harvey rode Cool Ground to victory in the Welsh National in 1990, and he too would go on to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Master Oats achieved that famous double in 1994/95, while Earth Summit completed the Welsh National and Aintree Grand National double three years later.

Bindaree was the reigning Grand National champion when he triumphed at Chepstow in 2003. Silver Birch won the Welsh National for Paul Nicholls, before becoming Gordon Elliott's first high-profile winner when he scored in the Aintree Grand National in 2007.

AP McCoy rode Synchronised to Welsh Grand National glory, before repeating that feat in the Cheltenham Gold Cup the following season. The last Welsh Grand National winner to triumph in the Cheltenham Gold Cup was Native River, who won under top-weight at Chepstow in 2016, before claiming the big prize at the Cheltenham Festival in 2018.

Martin Pipe's Bonanza Boy is the only horse to have successfully defended thre Welsh Grand National, winning back-to-back renewals in 1988 and '89. Mountainous is the only other two-time winner of this historic handicap, scoring in 2013 and again in 2015.