If you’re looking for a more unexposed method to highlight value in the market away from the obvious form clues, then checking a runner’s breeding can reap rewards.
Below is a list of sires whose runners acted well at Aintree during the last few years.
AINTREE (all meetings since 2023)
Sire | W-R | £1 | A/E | 2m-2m1½ f | 2m4f-2m5f | 3m-3m2f | 4m2f+ |
Walk In The Park | 9-58 | +13 | 0.84 | 3-24 | 2-21 | 3-11 | 1-2 |
Blue Bresil | 7-22 | +12 | 1.48 | 2-10 | 5-10 | 0-1 | 0-1 |
Saint Des Saints | 7-24 | +48 | 2.1 | 3-4 | 2-12 | 2-6 | 0-2 |
Yeats | 5-40 | -20 | 1.03 | 2-8 | 2-16 | 1-9 | 0-7 |
Authorized | 4-24 | +70 | 1.69 | 2-9 | 1-9 | 0-3 | 1-3 |
Shantou | 4-38 | -21 | 0.89 | 1-3 | 1-17 | 2-13 | 0-5 |
Milan | 4-28 | +23 | 1.20 | 1-4 | 2-14 | 1-10 | 0-0 |
Walk In The Park remains the sire to go to at Aintree, and we’ll discuss his progeny’s preferences later.
But, Saint Des Saints and Blue Bresil are two other stallions to note.
Saint Des Saints’ runners were fairly versatile distance-wise here bar the marathons, although when it comes to ground there was an increase in strike-rate the softer the ground was. His Gentelman De Gee won at the last two Grand National Festivals over 2m and 2m5f on good to soft ground.
Blue Bresil’s runners also have a preference for the soft stuff, with middle-distances favoured.
LEADING SIRES IN GRADED RACES IN 2025/26
Sire | W-R | £1 | 2m-2m2f | 2m3f-2m6.5f | 3m-3m2f |
Doctor Dino | 12-33 | -1 | 5-13 | 7-17 | 0-2 |
Walk In The Park | 9-94 | -68 | 2-17 | 6-44 | 1-27 |
Jukebox Jury | 7-20 | +16 | 3-7 | 1-4 | 3-9 |
Great Pretender | 6-13 | +14 | 4-7 | 2-4 | 0-2 |
Kayf Tara | 6-23 | +1 | 3-7 | 2-10 | 1-6 |
Westerner | 6-27 | +12 | 2-8 | 3-11 | 1-8 |
Doctor Dino is a sire who continues to rise up the rankings with an increasing number of winners each year, and the quality of his stock is of the highest order.
Indeed, he's now sired almost 30 Grade 1 winners to date, with 16 of them coming over 2m (16-39 +19)
Walk In The Park again features amongst the leading sires to have produced the major Graded winners this season, while Great Pretender had a career-best year in 2025 for siring Grade 1 and Grade 2 winners (7-20).
Should the ground come up good like last year, then these three sires all produced plenty of winners on a quicker surface this season.
Good ground sires (2025-26 jumps season)
Sire | W-R | Strike-rate | £1 | A/E |
Getaway | 60-372 | 16% | -72 | 1.07 |
Walk In The Park | 47-339 | 14% | +49 | 0.87 |
Soldier Of Fortune | 36-254 | 14% | -76 | 0.97 |
Walk In The Park returned his highest strike-rate on quicker ground this season compared to when it was soft (see below), while Getaway will have some interesting entries like Theatre Native, who won a nice prize at Cheltenham last spring on good ground and is entered for the Topham Chase on 10 April.
Good to soft sires (2025-26 jumps season)
Sire | W-R | Strike-rate | £1 | A/E |
Walk In The Park | 49-526 | 9% | -270 | 0.62 |
Getaway | 42-366 | 11% | -131 | 0.91 |
Soldier Of Fortune | 37-300 | 12% | -71 | 0.95 |
Soft/heavy ground sires (2025-26 jumps season)
Sire | W-R | Strike-rate | £1 | A/E |
Walk In The Park | 60-474 | 13% | -245 | 0.79 |
Soldier Of Fortune | 45-335 | 13% | -77 | 0.91 |
Jukebox Jury | 34-167 | 20% | +5 | 1.21 |
Should the rain return and it comes up soft, then sires like Jukebox Jury have to enter calculations. His Bambino Fever would enjoy any mud having not seemed to enjoy the good ground at Cheltenham last time.
Sire Combos (2025-26 jumps season)
Sire | W-R | Strike-rate | £1 | A/E |
Walk In The Park - Willie Mullins | 16-50 | 32% | +5 | 1.22 |
Make an extra note should the leading trainer and sire at Aintree team-up once more at the 2026 renewal as they struck for an amazing record of 4-5 (+36) since 2016 - the profits boosted somewhat with Nick Rockett landing the Grand National at 33/1 in 2025.