There is something quietly appealing about a horse who has been around, knows the job, and simply needs things to fall right.
Three Card Brag is not one of the headline acts for this year’s Grand National. At 50/1 with most bookmakers, he is well down the pecking order, and nobody is pretending otherwise.
But strip back the odds and look at the horse, and you find a nine-year-old with more to offer than his price suggests.
Gordon Elliott: A Trainer Who Knows How to Win the Grand National
Gordon Elliott trains him, which is a good place to start. The County Meath handler has won the Grand National three times, with Silver Birch in 2007 and Tiger Roll in 2018 and 2019.
When Elliott sends a horse to Aintree, it tends to be for the right reasons. He is not in the business of making up the numbers.
Three Card Brag has been a work in progress. He came through the ranks without ever threatening to set the world on fire, mixing it with some decent horses over hurdles without quite landing the big one.
He was fourth in the Albert Bartlett at Cheltenham in March 2023, which showed there was ability, but he was still finding his feet.
When he switched to fences, the same pattern emerged: competitive, placed, never quite getting to the winner’s enclosure.
He ran against Grade 1 performers like Corbetts Cross and Spillane’s Tower in the early stages of his chasing career and held his own, yet wins were hard to come by.
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The Cheltenham Win That Changed Everything
That changed at Cheltenham last October. In the £100,000 William Hill handicap chase on the opening day of the Showcase meeting, Jack Kennedy sent him into the lead approaching two out, and he stayed on strongly to beat Backmersackme by two and three-quarter lengths at 6/1.
It was the biggest win of his career, and owner Max McNeill was not shy about what he thought it meant.
“He was fantastic,” McNeill said afterward. “I thought at the end he was going to get caught but when the other horse came to him he just went away.”
His next sentence made his intentions clear: “We’ll have to speak to Gordon but the answer to the Grand National is yes.”
What Happened at the 2025 Grand National?
Elliott was characteristically measured. He had run Three Card Brag in the 2025 Grand National, where the horse went off at 16/1, made an early mistake under Sean Bowen, got caught up in traffic, and finished 11th.
He never really got home over the four and a quarter miles. “We ran him in the Grand National and he didn’t get home,” the trainer acknowledged. “He is a year older and he definitely looked to stay better there.”
That last line matters. Staying better. Cheltenham’s hill is a serious test of stamina, and Three Card Brag came home strongly, which was not something you could have said with confidence 12 months earlier.
Whether the extra year, the extra experience, or simply the conditions on the day made the difference, something had clicked.
Three Card Brag’s 2025-26 Season: Stamina Questions Being Answered
He went to Newbury the following month for the Coral Gold Cup and ran another solid race, finishing second to Panic Attack in a field of 24 at 25/1.
He was prominent throughout and only faded out of contention close to home. Again, the stamina was holding up better than it had.
Then in February, he ran in the Bobbyjo Chase at Fairyhouse, one of the recognised Grand National trials, where he finished seventh of nine behind Grangeclare West.
He went off favourite at 3/1, but the ground that day was heavy, conditions did not suit, and the run is best set aside.
Jack Kennedy, who knows the horse well, apparently felt there was unfinished business at Aintree. According to reports from Elliott’s media day, Kennedy felt Three Card Brag “might like the ground, he’ll love the trip.”
His Chances in the Grand National
So where does he stand against the profile of a typical Grand National winner?
The statistics can tell a story without needing to be recited one by one.
At 9 years old, he falls within the age bracket that has produced the most winners over the past three decades.
His weight of 11 stone dead is well within the range that has accounted for the bulk of recent winners, suggesting the handicapper has not buried him.
He is Irish-trained, which matters more than ever given that six of the last seven runnings have been won by horses from the other side of the Irish Sea.
He has Aintree experience from last year, so the fences, the atmosphere, and the unique demands of the course will not be new to him.
Grand National 2026 Odds of 50/1: Is He Worth a Bet?
The caveats are honest ones. He has only two wins over fences from twelve attempts, and while the quality of those runs in defeat has been solid, two career wins are not a standout record for a race of this nature.
The 50/1 price reflects real doubts about whether he truly gets the trip. His Bobbyjo run at Fairyhouse, however limited by the heavy ground, was not encouraging on the face of it.
But the Grand National has a habit of confounding expectations, and it does not always reward the horse with the most polished form book.
Elliott knows Aintree better than almost anyone alive in racing, Kennedy has form around the course, and Three Card Brag arrives here at the right age, on a manageable weight, with a clear preparation that has been pointing towards this race since October.
At 50/1, connections are not expecting a walkover. But they do believe there is a race in him, and on the right day, around Aintree, that might just be enough.
BETFRED
