2012 Grand National by Ginger McCain, the father of Ballabriggs' trainer Donald McCain, Jr. Among the early favourites for the race – alongside Ballabriggs – were Junior (trained by 2008's winning trainer David Pipe), Synchronised (the winner of the Lexus Chase on 28 December 2011 and later the 2012 Cheltenham Gold Cup), Weird Al (winner in the October 2011 Charlie Hall Chase), and Midnight Chase (first in the Cotswold Chase on 4 February 2012). Synchronised was attempting to become the first horse since Golden Miller in 1934 to win both the Gold Cup and Grand National in the same year. Handicap weights were
Cheltenham Gold Cup they lost their sponsorship following Jockey Club's and Arena Racing new initiative to not allow bookmaker sponsorships on their tracks that do not offer any contribution to horse racing from their offshore business. Only two weeks later a new sponsorship deal was announced with Timico, an independent internet service provider whose CEO Tim Radford is a horse owner having top chasers like Somersby and Racing Demon associated with his name. Timico also offered an increase of £25,000 to reach a total of £575,000 prize money for the 2016 Gold Cup renewal. It was the first time that the race had