How I won the Grand National

After a pretty miserable record in this race with only 2 previous winners (Little Polveir 28/1 in 1989 and Papillon 10/1 in 2000), I came up trumps big time with the 100/1 outsider Mon Mome this year. And unlike the last 100/1 winner, Foinavon, Mon Mome's success had nothing to do with a mass pile up or freak weather conditions. It simply appeared to be the best and freshest horse on the day. So just in case I am actually onto a system, here's how I picked it.

• Find a search engine that can filter information about the horses. I used this one.
• Step 1. Rule out any horse carrying more than 11 stone. Only 1 of the last 11 horses to win the National (I think) has carried over 11 stone. Fortunately for me, Mon Mome was carrying 11 stone exactly.
• Step 2. Rule out any horse that has never won over 3 miles or further. If a horse cannot win over 3 miles, there's no way it is going to win over 4 1/2.
• Step 3. Rule out horses that are bad jumpers. I excluded any horse that had fallen more than twice in it's career.
• Step 4. By this stage I was down to 3 horses. One of these had never run in the Grand National before so I excluded it on that basis.

This left just two horses, Mon Mome and L'Ami. So I backed them both in proportion to their anticipated staring prices. L'Ami was listed as 22/1, Mon Mome at 66/1. Fortunately Mon Mome drifted and I won 50% more than I was originally expecting.

For the record, L'Ami got round to the final fence (number 30) before pulling up. It clearly can stay and jump and will be a serious contender in 2010 - as long as it is carrying 11 stone or less.