Irish Grand National Tips 2027: Fairyhouse Easter Monday Preview and Trends

Home › Irish Racing › Irish Grand National

By The Guv'nor · Last updated October 2026

The 2027 Irish Grand National is on Easter Monday, 29 March 2027, at Fairyhouse: a €500,000 handicap chase over about 3m5f for horses aged five and older, with 20 to 30 runners in each of the last 12 renewals. Good Irish Grand National tips start with what those races say, so here are the trends, weights and each-way maths.

The race: Fairyhouse, Easter Monday and a 30-runner handicap

The Fairyhouse Easter Festival 2027 runs from Saturday 27 to Monday 29 March, with the BOYLE Sports Irish Grand National on the Monday. The Irish Grand National Day page gives it as a €500,000 race, with the first race at 2.05pm and the last at 6.10pm, "subject to change". The race time isn't published yet; it went off at 4pm in each of the last 12 renewals.

It's a handicap, so every horse gets a weight based on its official rating, and the trip is about 3m5f (roughly 5,830 metres). The winner has taken €275,000 in each of the last four runnings. It was a Grade A handicap up to 2023 and has been listed as Grade 3 since 2024. There was no race in 2020.

The timing is the bit to note for 2027. Easter is early, so the race comes just 10 days after the Cheltenham Festival ends on 19 March, and 12 days before the Aintree Grand National on 10 April. Across the last 12 renewals the gap from Cheltenham ranged from 10 days (2016) to 38 days (2014, 2019 and 2025).

Irish Grand National trends from the last 12 renewals

I've pulled the full result of every Irish Grand National from 2014 to 2026 (12 races, 331 runners) and built this from the official starting prices and the weights each horse was given. Irish Grand National trends aren't predictions. They're a record of where the winners and placed horses came from, and that's how I use them.

What the 12 renewals say

• Seven-year-olds: 6 of the 12 winners, from 80 of the 331 runners. Horses aged 10 or older were 0 from 63, though 12 of them finished in the first four.
• Favourites: the market leader won 4 times in 12 (2014, 2017, 2019, 2026). Backing all 12 at SP for 1pt would have made +16.5pt, which is hindsight on a tiny sample. The bigger favourites picture is on my how often favourites win page.
• Prices: 7 winners were 8/1 or shorter, including the last four. But Freewheelin Dylan (150/1) and Lord Lariat (40/1) won back to back in 2021 and 2022, both for Dermot McLoughlin.
• Trainers: ten different trainers in 12 runnings. Gordon Elliott had 77 runners for one win; Willie Mullins had 40 for two wins and 11 top-four finishes. Two winners came from British yards (Jonjo O'Neill in 2014, Rebecca Curtis in 2025).
• Getting round: only 146 of the 331 runners finished (44%). In 2023 just six of 27 completed, and in 2018 it was eight of 30.

I've done the same for Aintree on my Grand National trends page.

Handicap marks, the weights and the Cheltenham form

Ten of the 12 winners were rated between 136 and 142. That sounds like a golden rule until you see that 132 of the 331 runners were rated in that band too, so it's mostly where the field sits. The two exceptions, Our Duke (153) and I Am Maximus (149), were classy novices near the top of the weights. If the marks are new to you, my handicaps explained guide covers how ratings turn into weights.

What has changed is the weight the winner carries. The last four carried 10-13 or more, three of them 11st or more. Here's how each weight band has done across all 12 renewals:

Don't get excited by the middle band's profit: it's one 150/1 winner. The first-four rate is similar across the bands (about 14%, 18% and 12%), so weight alone doesn't rule much in or out.

Coming from Cheltenham

I matched every Irish National runner against the Cheltenham Festival results from the same March. 104 of the 331 had run there.

So a Cheltenham run is neither a plus nor a minus overall, but the detail is interesting. All four winners who'd been to Cheltenham had run in a novice chase there: Shutthefrontdoor (2014) and Thunder And Roses (2015) in the National Hunt Chase, I Am Maximus (2023) in the Brown Advisory, and Haiti Couleurs (2025), who won the Princess Royal National Hunt Challenge Cup, a novices' handicap, before winning at Fairyhouse. Of the 65 who came from Cheltenham handicaps, Haiti Couleurs was the only winner.

With only 10 days between the two meetings in 2027, I'd want to know how hard a horse's Cheltenham race was before I trust it to back up. For the Cheltenham side of things, see my Cheltenham Festival handicap guide.

Each-way terms in a 25-30 runner handicap

Standard each-way terms for a handicap with 16 or more runners are a quarter of the odds for the first four places (see Coral's horse racing rules for the full bands). Ante-post bets keep the terms you took when you struck the bet. If a firm is offering extra places, read exactly how many before you bet, because a fifth place changes the maths. More on how the terms work is on my each-way betting explained page.

Where have the places gone? I split all 331 runners by their SP:

Half of all the 2nd to 4th places (18 of 36) went to horses priced 11/1 to 20/1. That's the each-way zone in this race. The very short end does the winning (5 winners from just 15 runners at 13/2 or shorter), but the places spread right down the market.

Worked example: 1pt each-way at 20/1

Say 1pt is £5 (or €5). A 1pt each-way bet is two bets, so it costs £10 in total. At a quarter the odds, the place part of a 20/1 shot pays 5/1.

• It wins: the win half returns £105 and the place half £30. That's £135 back, £125 profit.
• It finishes second, third or fourth: the place half returns £30. That's £20 profit on the whole bet.
• It's unplaced or doesn't finish: you lose £10.

Remember that 185 of the 331 runners in my sample (56%) didn't get round. The place half of the bet is a cushion, not a guarantee, so the horse still has to be a strong stayer who jumps well.

Irish Grand National betting tips: how I approach the race

Look, I'm essentially a statistics/maths geek, so I don't read a 30-runner handicap as a puzzle with one answer. I read it as a list of prices, and my job is to find the ones that are too big. I don't care about a high win rate. Anyone can talk about high win rates when they tip odds-on horses all day; what matters is profit month to month.

That's why races like this suit me. I like outsiders and each-way value: when they place, we can make more profit than an odds-on shot winning. And it's a handicap, so the system behind my outsiders comes into play. It picks out horses that have won or come close off a higher weight or mark than they're running off today, and what members get is a short list, not the whole racecard.

The staking doesn't change because it's a big day. I divide my bank into points (1pt = £5 on a £100 bank, or €5 on €100) and I don't double up because a race feels special. If I'm not sure about a horse I skip it. I bet on every horse I tip, and if there's stable information or smart money moving before the off, members hear about it. Losers are part of it, and understanding that is the key to being a winner longer term.

My actual Irish Grand National bet goes out to Winners Club members on Easter Monday morning.

Price

Price of the service is a fixed £9.99 monthly and that will never change and you can cancel anytime if it's not for you. To break that down for you that's about 32p a day for a whole month or a going to have a McDonalds with a mate. Crazy right?

I've priced it cheap because I want it accessible to absolutely everyone and build a community of winners - If I am honest the £9.99 is just there as a filter if you like so that only serious people sign up. If the paid version isn't for you just yet, then feel free to sign up to the free service.

My promise.

Look, I can't guarantee every tip every day is going to win (anyone that can is a fraudster). But I can promise you that every horse I will tip I am betting on myself and through my data analysis techniques it should be in with a very strong chance of bolting up and winning and over a long enough period you will be profitable.

Here's what some of our paid members have been saying:

Give it a go, what have you got to lose? It's only a tenner a month. Feel free to try out the free version first!

- The Guv'nor

After the race: what it means for Punchestown

The next big date in Ireland is the Punchestown Festival, which runs from Tuesday 27 April to Saturday 1 May 2027, four weeks after Fairyhouse. I followed every Irish National runner from 2014 to 2026 to that spring's Punchestown Festival. 102 of them ran there, and only three won: Bellshill, fourth at Fairyhouse, took the 2018 Punchestown Gold Cup at 4/1; Kemboy, who didn't finish at Fairyhouse, won a novice handicap chase that week at 11/4; and Brahma Bull, 13th in 2021, won the Pat Taaffe Handicap Chase at 14/1. Fourteen of the 102 finished in the first three, and 1pt win on all 102 at SP would have lost 78.25 points.

Only two Irish National winners went on to Punchestown in that time: Rogue Angel was tenth in 2016 and Freewheelin Dylan fourth in 2021. Four weeks isn't long after a 3m5f slog. Horses that didn't complete at Fairyhouse made up 61 of the 102 runs and supplied seven of the 14 top-three finishes, so a non-completion isn't a reason to write one off.

I'll add how the 2027 race went, and which trends held up, within a week. For the festival itself, my Punchestown Festival preview picks up the story, and the rest of the spring's big races are on my big races calendar. For everything else in Ireland, see my Irish horse racing tips page.

Irish Grand National FAQs

When is the Irish Grand National 2027?

Easter Monday, 29 March 2027, at Fairyhouse in County Meath, on day three of the Easter Festival.

What time is the Irish Grand National?

The 2027 race time isn't published yet. Fairyhouse lists the first race at 2.05pm and the last at 6.10pm, subject to change, and the race went off at 4pm in each of the last 12 renewals.

How long is the Irish Grand National?

About 3 miles 5 furlongs, roughly 5,830 metres. The 2026 winner, Soldier In Milan, took 7 minutes 50.5 seconds on yielding to soft ground.

Who won the Irish Grand National in 2026?

Soldier In Milan, trained by Emmet Mullins and ridden by Donagh Meyler. He was the 6/1 favourite in a field of 30 and carried 11-0 off a mark of 142.

Is the Irish Grand National the same as the Grand National?

No. The Irish Grand National is run at Fairyhouse in Ireland on Easter Monday. The Grand National is at Aintree in England, on Saturday 10 April 2027. Both are staying handicap chases, and the form can cross over: I Am Maximus won the Irish National in 2023 and went on to win the Aintree race in 2024 and 2026. The Scottish Grand National at Ayr completes the spring set.

More in this guide

• Irish horse racing tips and festival previews
• Punchestown Festival tips
• Dublin Racing Festival preview and trends
• Leopardstown Christmas Festival tips
• Grand National tips