By Sophie Brown BBC Sport at Aintree

Hedgehunter's victory in the 2005 Grand National was a bad result for bookmakers.

The 10-year-old drifted a little in the betting in the hours leading up to the race as once-a-year punters piled their money onto housewives' favourite Forest Gunner, ridden by Carrie Ford.

Hedgehunter had been well-fancied by punters before the race

But Hedgehunter's price shortened up just before the race began and he was sent off 7-1 favourite.

A number of five-figure bets at the track included a bet of �10,000 on Hedgehunter to win.

William Hill described Hedgehunter's victory as "a sparkling result for punters" while Totesport and Ladbrokes also reported laying plenty of bets on the winner.

"Hedgehunter has been popular for months with ante-post backers and was at 33-1 after falling last year," said David Hood of William Hill.

"He was also popular at 25-1 at the weights in February and despite a wide range of paper tips on Saturday morning, he was still latched onto by many people."

"We lost a significant six-figure sum on ante-post bets on Hedgehunter," said Coral spokesman Simon Clare.

Forest Gunner, who finished fifth, was also costly to the bookies who paid out each-way on the first five home.

But if Ford's mount had won the race, insiders believed it would have set bookies back well over �100m.

But one bookmaker clawed back losses when the biggest cash bet of the day, �50,000 on the Jonjo O'Neill-trained Refinement, was lost in the closing bumper.

An estimated �250m was taken by bookmakers across the UK on the Grand National this year.