Grand National Odds: Intense Raffles New Favourite for Aintree
Craig Jones 
Hot on the back of the Cheltenham Festival, we are only two and a half weeks away from the Aintree Grand National meeting.
With an entry stage happening right now, where runners can be removed, we've seen a shake up in the betting after Cheltenham Gold Cup hero Inothewayurthinkin was withdrawn from the race.
He was a strong favourite, and was in line to go off as the shortest priced favourite in modern times. But he's now out, we've got a new favourite in Intense Raffles, and the market looks more like the Grand National betting markets we are used to seeing.
Excitement is building and fresh after Cheltenham week, there will be plenty of brands offering Grand National free bets to punters, in the lead up to the meeting, and on the day of the big race itself .
Latest Grand National Betting Odds
As soon as the announcement came from Gavin Cromwell, trainer of Inowhaturthinkin, betting sites reacted quickly to revamp their market for the Aintree showpiece.
It was a very lopsided market initially, now, we have a 7/1 favourite, two runners at single figure odds, and big prices about the rest.
Intense Raffles comes here on the back of a very good second in the Bobbyjo Chase at Fairyhouse last month, a race that has been used in the past as a Grand National prep run.
Prior to that run, he'd been seen over hurdles this season, clearly being kept away from the bigger obstacles to protect his handicap mark.
He's no stranger to big field handicaps, and last April, off a mark of 140, he was successful in the Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse.
He's now rated 156, so the task is much tougher, but connections have deemed it a good enough mark to protect this season.
Despite being favourite though, he's unlikely to grab the public attention like Inowhaturthinkin would have done. The Gold Cup winner would have been in the minds of punters, plenty of people would have been using their free bets on him, but that's no longer going to happen.
Betting Odds Show Strong McManus Hand
While owner JP McManus will no longer be represented by the market leader, he does still hold a very strong hand in the race according to horse racing betting sites with prices on the race.
Iroko is second favourite, he's been long since talked about as being 'JP's Aintree horse' so there will no doubt be plenty of interest in him.
Elsewhere, he could also have I Am Maximus, Perceval Legallois and Meetingofthewaters also running in his colours.
