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
Gordon Elliott (racehorse trainer) first winner at the Cheltenham Festival as a trainer was Chicago Grey in the prestigious National Hunt Chase Challenge Cup in 2011. He won the 2016 Cheltenham Gold Cup for the first time with Don Cossack. In the 2017 Cheltenham Festival he finished as the top trainer for the first time with six wins. It was the same number of wins as Willie Mullins but Elliott had one more second place than Mullins. In the 2017 Grand National Elliott trained Cause of Causes which came second. Elliott finished the 2016/17 season in second place to Mullins in the Irish national