Onetime broodmare Snow Leopardess tries to become first female Grand National winner in 71 years

The future-book bets started to appear in the final days of March on a seemingly unlikely candidate for Saturday’s $1.3 million Grand National Steeplechase at Aintree Racecourse in England.

The 10-year-old mare Snow Leopardess, who delivered a foal three years ago, was 14-1 as recently as 10 days ago for the Grand National, run at 4 5/16 miles over 30 fences. By Monday, Snow Leopardess was the 7-1 favorite with bookmakers, a position she held on Thursday.

Trained by Charlie Longsdon for Andrew Fox-Pitt and his mother, Marietta, Snow Leopardess has won 9 of 19 starts, including her last three races, in a career disrupted by injury in 2018. Snow Leopardess was bred to 2006 English Derby winner Sir Percy that year, and the resulting foal, Red Panda, is a 3-year-old filly currently in training in England.

Snow Leopardess resumed racing in late 2019 and has since won 4 of 11 starts. The support for the Grand National stems from a nose win in the Becher Chase at 3 1/4 miles over the National fences at Aintree in December. In her only subsequent start, Snow Leopardess won a seven-runner Mares’ Steeplechase at three miles at Exeter Racecourse on Feb. 13 as the even-money favorite.

For the Grand National, Snow Leopardess will be ridden by Aidan Coleman, who is winless in 13 mounts in the Grand National but was second last year. Coleman rode Snow Leopardess in the Becher Chase.

Recent history is against Snow Leopardess. A mare has not won the Grand National since Nickel Coin in 1951, a year only four runners finished. Magic of Light, an 8-year-old mare, was second in 2019.

Aside from Snow Leopardess, Agusta Gold and Mount Ida are the other mares in Saturday’s 40-runner field.

The Grand National has a post time of 12:15 p.m. Eastern or 9:15 a.m. Pacific.

A win by Snow Leopardess would keep the Grand National in England. If she loses, chances are the winner will be from Ireland. Irish stables have won four of the last five runnings, including 2021 with Minella Times, a 10-1 chance on Saturday. Jockey Rachael Blackmore rode Minella Times last year, becoming the first woman to win the race.

This year, other Irish runners such as Any Second Now (8-1), Delta Work (9-1), and Escaria Ten (11-1) have been well backed. Ireland’s Longhouse Poet has drawn sustained support in recent days and was 16-1 as of Thursday.

Delta Work has the dubious distinction of being a booed winner at Cheltenham Racecourse in England last month. Delta Work edged his popular stablemate Tiger Roll to win the Cross-Country Chase in Tiger Roll’s final start. Tiger Roll, now 12, won the Grand National in 2018 and 2019.

Delta Work and Escaria Ten are trained by Gordon Elliott, who has seven runners on Saturday in search of a record-equaling fourth win in the race.

Elliott did not have any starters in the 2021 Grand National. He was suspended at the time by Irish racing officials after a 2019 photo emerged on social media of him setting on a deceased horse in a paddock.