Jubilee Express heads into the 2025 Coral Welsh Grand National looking very much like the “safe” favourite in a race that rarely feels safe for anyone.
With proven course form, a trainer who knows exactly what is required to win this contest and a profile built around stamina rather than flash, he brings an unusually solid set of credentials to a notoriously unpredictable handicap.
Jubilee Express is an eight‑year‑old gelding by No Risk At All out of Bella Lawena, a pedigree that blends stamina and a liking for softer ground – two boxes you would dearly like ticked before committing to him at Chepstow in late December.
His chasing record of two wins and three places from just eight starts slightly underplays how strongly he has progressed since moving into staying handicaps over three miles and beyond.
His chase career really began to take shape in the second half of the 2023‑24 season, when he strung together a sequence of tough runs in staying handicaps at Exeter, Lingfield and Haydock.
Placed efforts over 3m and 3m5f were followed by victory in a 3m4½f Haydock handicap on soft ground, marking him down early as a thorough stayer with the right sort of temperament for marathon chases.
The next major step came in last year’s Welsh Grand National, when he finished a strong second to Val Dancer over today’s 3m6½f trip on soft going, staying on best of all bar the winner.
That run confirmed he handles the track, the distance and the occasion – three unknowns that many of his rivals still have to answer.
Form Heading to Chepstow
After a long break, Jubilee Express reappeared this November in a competitive 3m1f handicap at Cheltenham on heavy ground, a race that did not play to his strengths and in which he faded into tenth.
That run can be marked down as a needed pipe‑opener rather than a form disaster, with the heavy going and sharp finish conspiring against a horse who truly comes into his own over further.
The key piece of recent evidence is his win in the official Welsh National Trial at Chepstow on 6 December, over 2m7½f on good to soft ground.
Sent off 13/2, he travelled sweetly, jumped with assurance and pulled 2½ lengths clear of Collectors Item, with the pair more than 30 lengths ahead of the rest – the sort of dominance that suggests the form is well above average for a trial.
That success earned him a place at the head of the market, with firms generally quoting him around the 5/1 mark in the run‑up to raceday.
In a contest where favourites rarely go off much shorter, that price reflects both respect and the understanding that this race is never a formality.
Can The Favourite Win?
The Welsh Grand National is no graveyard for favourites, but it is not a licence to print money either.
Trends over the last dozen or so renewals show that roughly a third of winners have come from the front of the market, with four of the last 12 renewals going to the starting favourite and most of the others to horses in the top three in the betting.
The race’s nature – big field, long trip, often harsh ground – means hard luck stories are common, and one mistake or moment of mid‑race pressure can undo even the most solid profile.
Fans backing the favourite, then, are at least swimming with the tide of recent history but still need to make peace with the fact that Chepstow has a habit of reminding everyone that horses are not machines.
Thomas, Woods and Walters
Jubilee Express’s connections bring plenty of reassurance. Trainer Sam Thomas is already a Welsh Grand National winner thanks to Iwilldoit’s success in 2021, a landmark victory for a yard based in Wales and operating out of businessman Dai Walters’ Lisvane facility.
That win underlined Thomas’s knack for preparing a horse specifically for this Chepstow test – a knack he has openly suggested Jubilee Express shares, calling him “the perfect horse for a Welsh Grand National”.
The ownership, Walters Plant Hire Ltd, are steeped in Welsh jumping, having long supported the local scene and backed Thomas’s training operation.
A repeat of last year’s near‑miss with a win this time would be a particularly neat story: a Welsh‑trained, Welsh‑owned horse, back at the track where he has already excelled.
In the saddle, Kielan Woods takes over after Lorcan Williams steered Jubilee Express to trial success earlier in the month.
Woods comes into the race with three winners from his last 22 rides in the fortnight, a solid enough return, and he is an experienced big‑race rider with the tactical nous to secure a handy position without doing too much too soon.
Ticking Boxes
On paper, Jubilee Express looks almost purpose‑built for this job.
Key positives:
Age: At eight, he sits firmly within the prime age band for Welsh National winners, with the majority of recent victors aged between six and eight.
Stamina: Form over 3m4½f at Haydock and 3m5f at Lingfield, plus last year’s Welsh National second, leaves little doubt about his ability to see out today’s 3m6½f.
Course form: A close second in this race last year and a comfortable win in the Trial this month make Chepstow a proven happy hunting ground.
Going: His best form has come on soft or good to soft, and Chepstow in late December rarely offers anything faster.
Trainer record: A previous Welsh National on the CV and a yard clearly targeting this race with him as the sole representative.
The main questions revolve around his relatively low overall win tally. He has won only once over fences this calendar year, though that figure is tempered by the fact he has spent a lot of time running in competitive staying handicaps where placed efforts can be worth just as much as easy wins in weaker company.
As for the extra weight, the penalty pushes him a little higher in the handicap but still leaves him carrying less than many of his main rivals, several of whom are burdened with 11st 7lb or more.
In a race where trend guides often highlight winners carrying between 10st 3lb and 11st 4lb, he still fits neatly within the preferred range.
Can He Win?
The most likely winning scenario for Jubilee Express looks very much like a refined replay of last year.
He is expected to sit handy to midfield, jump economically, and gradually work his way into contention from the far side, using his strong late run to move into the firing line approaching the final two fences.
If the ground is no worse than soft and the early pace does not turn ferocious, his proven ability to stay and accelerate off a good position could make him very hard to pass on the long run-in.
That said, several rivals, including Mr Vango, Haiti Couleurs and Git Maker, bring serious staying form and may be ridden with the sole intent of out‑staying the favourite rather than out‑speeding him.
Taking everything into account, Jubilee Express fully justifies his position at the head of the market as the 2025 Coral Welsh Grand National favourite.
He has the right age, the right trainer, the right course and distance form, and arrives on the back of an authoritative win in the Trial that showed him to be in peak condition.
Favourites do not win this race every year and no horse can be seen as bombproof over Chepstow’s gruelling 3m6½f, but if you were to design a Welsh National contender from scratch, you would end up with something very close to Jubilee Express.
As long as he gets a clean round and the ground does not deteriorate into something truly extreme, he looks to have an excellent chance of going one better than last year and giving Sam Thomas a second victory in Wales’s biggest race.
BETFRED
