When you look down the 2026 Grand National entries, Jagwar might be one of the most interesting.
He turns up at Aintree on Saturday, April 11th with 10st 10lbs on his back, a Festival-winning CV, a huge engine, and just enough quirks to make him compelling rather than straightforward.
Jagwar has not been one of those polished prodigies who glides through every stage of his career.
Joint‑trainer Josh Guerriero has been pretty open that, early on, the horse was “never straightforward”, describing him as gangly, even as they could feel a big engine lurking underneath.
Once sent chasing, the penny dropped in a serious way. Jagwar won four of his five starts as a novice over fences last season, including his dominant success in the Plate Handicap Chase at the Cheltenham Festival for JP McManus and the Greenall–Guerriero team.
It is not just the win tally that matters; it is how he has done it. Connections have repeatedly pointed to his powerful finishing effort and ability to come from off a strong pace, which is exactly the sort of weapon you want in a big-field staying handicap.
The 2025/26 campaign: Sharpening The Tools
This season has been about turning Jagwar from a smart Festival handicapper into a genuine top‑end staying chaser.
After a compromised third in the December Gold Cup, where the race was run steadily and then quickened in a way that didn’t play to his strengths, the team expected a big step forward once he was right again.
Guerriero noted that he was the only horse to really come out of the pack that day and that his fitness would improve, which again fits the profile of a strong stayer still learning his trade.
Plans even briefly flirted with the idea of the Ryanair Chase, with Jagwar included in the 33 entries and targeting a Trials Day handicap as a springboard. That in itself tells you the regard in which he is held.
The real turning point for his Grand National credentials, though, came back at Cheltenham in March.
Sent for the Ultima Handicap Chase over 3m1f, he ran a stormer to finish runner‑up to Johnnywho, again in the McManus colours, having to negotiate the sharp Old Course and the longest trip of his career so far.
Held up by Mark Walsh, he wasn’t foot-perfect, yet he stayed on powerfully after the last to get within half a length of the winner, leaving the impression that he wanted even further and possibly a different sort of track.
Guerriero’s verdict was telling: the sharp nature of the Old Course was “so sharp for him” and did not suit a big-striding horse like Jagwar.
That effort did, however, secure his place in the Grand National picture in the eyes of both the yard and the market.
Why Aintree Might Be His Playground
If Cheltenham’s Old Course is a tight, technical exam, Aintree’s National course is more of a long, rolling cross‑country paper. That difference could be crucial for Jagwar.
Guerriero has been explicit that he feels the National course will help the horse’s jumping, because “you run in a straight line and he can use his big stride.”
Rather than constantly being asked to check, turn and organise himself around bends, he can lock into a rhythm down that famous long run to the fences.
Tactically, Aintree’s long run before the first fence and the long straights thereafter should allow Mark Walsh to keep things rather simple. That kind of profile – big engine, strong stayer, improving jumper – has very much been the modern Grand National template.
The weight of 10st 10 looks like another tick in his box. In a race where excessive weight can blunt even the classiest horses over 4m2½f, being relatively lightly burdened while still possessing graded‑race aspirations is a sweet spot.
The Trainers Behind Jagwar
Oliver Greenall and Josh Guerriero are only in their fourth season as an official joint‑training partnership, but the relationship goes much deeper than that.
They rode together as amateurs, with Guerriero once beating Greenall into fourth in the Foxhunters’ over the National fences back in 2008 on Christy Beamish – a nice little Aintree subplot in itself.
Greenall learned his trade with Michael Easterby and Sir Mark Prescott, while Guerriero picked up experience with Philip Hobbs and Victor Dartnall before spending three years as assistant to Dan Skelton.
They now train a sizeable string of around 85 horses in Cheshire and have already delivered two Cheltenham Festival winners for JP McManus in Iroko and Jagwar, plus a fourth in last year’s Grand National with Iroko.
They are open about the fact that having one serious Grand National contender would have felt like a dream; having two in the same year in Iroko and Jagwar is, in Guerriero’s words, “the stuff of fantasy.”
The Pros and Cons
So why should we be paying close attention to Jagwar as a serious 2026 Grand National winner?
On the positive side, he brings proven Festival form, having won the Plate at Cheltenham and then finished second in the Ultima under a big weight.
He has a running style and stride that look tailor‑made for a long, galloping track like Aintree, where he can stay straight and build momentum.
And, he has a handy racing weight of 10-10, which gives him a theoretical edge in a race where lugging top‑weight can be a killer late on.
However, the case is not entirely one‑way traffic. There are a few caveats worth keeping in mind. His jumping, while generally safe, is not always textbook. Guerriero has been honest that he can be untidy and waste energy, and the National is not a race that forgives many mistakes.
He has done most of his best work around Cheltenham, which is very different in configuration to Aintree, so there is still a small question about whether he will fully translate that form over the unique National fences.
Big‑race trends are never gospel, but the one that sticks out is that he is only 7 years old, and since 1940, Noble Yeats is the only other to win at this age.
If you are picking through the form looking for a horse who could improve into the Grand National rather than simply survive it, Jagwar deserves to be on the shortlist.
And if he does come charging into the picture after the last, using that great rolling stride that his trainers keep talking about, nobody will be calling him under‑the‑radar ever again.
BETFRED
