BBC SPORT | Special Events | 2001 | Grand National

Odds of 2-1 are being offered for jockey Tony McCoy to get round the course and 1-3 if he does not.

McCoy, who has never won a Grand National, will be riding on a Martin Pipe-trained horse.

Pipe has 10 horses in the race, and bookies are offering 5-2 odds that one of them will be the eventual champion.

Horses trained in Ireland are at 6-1 to grab first place, which is not surprising since there have been Irish winners for the last two years.

Betting oddities

Coral Eurobet is offering 15-2 on the winning horse being trained by a woman.

These horses include Venetia Williams' General Wolfe and Inis Cara, and Sue Smith's The Last Fling.

One optimistic punter has bet on cycling star Lance Armstrong to win this year's Tour de France, and his namesake to be first past the post at Aintree.

Another customer stands to win �500,000 if his �100 each way treble comes through.

Ibal at 16-1 in the Imperial Cup, 20-1 Nimello in the Lincoln Handicap and Mely Moss in the big race itself are all that stands in his way.

Jockey Tony McCoy
Will McCoy be there when the going gets soft?
Spread betting will undoubtedly be popular at Aintree.

There is already speculation about how many horses will complete the race, with the level set at 9-11 horses.

An accident-fest could make some punter very happy as fewer finishers mean higher returns.

In 1998, only six made it to the past the finishing line, including that year's winner Earth Summit.

If you do not want to see the majority of horses taking a tumble, you may be keen to take a 6-1 bet that all the horses make it over the first fence.

Housewives' favourite

However, for many people, the Grand National constitutes their one bet of the year.

This kind of punter is more likely to choose a horse on the basis of its name rather than its form.

It comes as no surprise that this year's "housewives' choice" is the subtly titled Blowing Wind.

Coral are even offering customers a "housewives special" with 9-1 on The Last Fling, Dark Stranger and Earthmover finishing the race.

One horse that many bookies, such as William Hill, will hope does not win is Papillon.

Going into Saturday, they stand to lose most money on the Irish horse.

Last year, the eventual winner's odds fell from 33-1 to 11-1 on the day.

This year's big movers have included Inis Cara going from 66-1 to 20-1 and Hollybank Buck who has ended up at 33-1 from 66-1.

Chinese interest

William Hill's saw 2,400 new online accounts opened from China in the hours leading up to the Grand National.

The race is being shown live in China for the first time and the television audience is expected to top 200m.