# I Am Maximus wins the Grand National again, matching a Red Rum feat

The event date is 2026-04-11.

I Am Maximus has won the Grand National for a second time, a rare achievement that made the horse the first since Red Rum to regain the race.

BBC says the Willie Mullins-trained runner backed up his 2024 victory by finishing ahead of Iroko, Jordans and Johnnywho at Aintree. Jockey Paul Townend was aboard for the repeat win, and the horse went off as the 9-2 favourite before delivering.

The result gave Mullins a third straight Grand National win and a fourth overall, a run that put him alongside the great modern trainers of the race. It also made JP McManus the leading owner in Grand National history with four wins, thanks to I Am Maximus and previous victories by Don’t Push It and Minella Times.

The historical comparison matters because the Grand National is built on repeat lore as much as one-off shocks. Red Rum’s second and third wins came in 1974 and 1977, so a horse winning again after an earlier victory is a small club. BBC says I Am Maximus is the first to do it since then.

This was also a display of consistency rather than luck. A favourite winning the race is never a foregone conclusion, but the report says I Am Maximus delivered the performance expected of him. That steadiness matters in a race known for its unpredictability and for how hard it is to win even once.

The BBC report did not present the result as a late scramble or a lucky break. It framed the horse as the clear class of the field, and that makes the achievement more meaningful. A repeat win at Aintree is rare because the race is so punishing and the path to the winner’s enclosure so uncertain.

For Mullins, the victory extended a remarkable run at one of racing’s most famous meetings. For McManus, it added another line to a record book already shaped by major National wins. For I Am Maximus, it confirmed that the 2024 win was not a one-off peak.

BBC’s account shows the Grand National remains a race where history matters. Winning once creates a memory. Winning twice, with years between the victories, creates a legacy.

BBC says the win was notable not only because it repeated a previous success, but because it matched a rare historical feat. In a race this hard to win once, doing it again places the horse and jockey combination in a special category that fans and historians will remember.

For the sport itself, the repeat win underlines how difficult Aintree still is to master. Even with modern preparation and a top yard behind him, success depends on a horse holding form across a race that punishes small mistakes. That is what makes a second Grand National victory so rare.

BBC also notes that the win came with the horse as a favourite, which adds another layer to the achievement: the race did not simply throw up a surprise, it confirmed the form of a horse already expected to run well.