Judge him on how good he is now,not three years ago

Some tentative stuff here.. but

Mon Mome had shown enough to be fav for Welsh National, the best guide for the GN. He did run poorly though.
Venetia Williams stable was not in great form at that time.
Venetia's stable came to life out of the blue with some great runs at the Cheltenham festival.
Mon Mome was hampered three times (once badly) in the previous national but finished 12th.
He ran well after his victory the following year in the Gold Cup (third) to confirm he was a decent class horse.
He was probably not going to win but was going ok in 9th in subsequent national when falling.

Imo he should never have been 100/1 sp or 220 on here when he won.

Am I biased- Yes!!

Cape Tribulation revels in testing conditions, he basically acted better than any horse in the Cotswold Chase added to his solid amount of ability he won the race. Imperial Commander travelled and jumped like the class horse and ran very well in defeat. You can look at it two ways, one is it was disappointing that he couldn't get the job done in receipt of 6 lbs from Cape Trib the other is if you consider the above factors and even take out Cape Trib who is a improving horse who as stated loved the conditions, then Imperial Commander would have beaten Hunt Ball by 36 lengths - people would then be going over the top about how much ability he retains and would already be a single figure price. As it is, I think 20/1 is a very fair price for a big horse who is built to carry the weight in what looks a poor handicap. Even if he gets pulled up at least at 20/1 people can think well i backed the best horse to have run in the race in decades - a top weight will win this race again and Imperial Commander fits the bill

Agree he might not take to it, or might go wrong and might pull up.  The flat galloping track makes injury less likely though and he is the type of horse you could imagine reveling in it.  It isn't just sentiment talking with me, I genuinely fancy him to do this.  If he doesn't well, he owes me nothing and I will remain a loyal fan of the fastest Gold Cup winner since Top Speed began :)

Mely Moss came closest in recent times - won Aintree Foxhunters 1999 after almost year off, next run was 2nd to Papillon in 2000 GN .... but many stats against IC including age. Can see him pulling up around 2nd Canal Turn.

This race is a lottery, ok fences smaller, etc etc blah blah blah but 40 horses all going to the first with another 29 to jump 3 of which a horse would (unless ran in it previously) never have experienced before and given 4 and a half miles round a flat track you can only write off about 10 of them! In fact no, sod that, with the sp's of recent past winners, any of the 40 can! Ok, not likely but all it will take is the the more favored horses to get wiped out one by one for another Mon Mome style of winner at 100/1+!

But i will still have a go at it, nothing at all wrong with the odd sweep stake at work or if it is your cup of tea about 10-11 bets in the race, it is the best horse racing spectacle in the world after all!

JUST PRAY THEY ALL MAKE IT ROUND IN ONE PIECE WITH NO FATALITIES ANYMORE PLEASE GOD ! ! !

Horses that will be running for me are (main bets)

COLBERT STATION
CHICAGO GREY
IMPERIAL COMMANDER
BALTHAZAR KING

Already backed On his Own, T43.

Looking to add, and have much smaller bets on and staked according to price to secure most profit Seabass, cappa, JOIN TOGETHER, ALWAYS WAINING, TREACLE, Rare bob, Forpady. All each way of course with 5 places and b.o.g, not that it matters in a race like this! MORNING PRICE MUST BE TAKEN, wonder if sp over round will actually be UNDER 150% this year eh lads/lasses?

I will add a couple more to that, mainly to try and field all bases, i.e if markets guides in morning etc, anything that can be traded back on here etc i think its a lottery, but it is a wonderful spectacle as already said and just love that winning feeling, when you know a decent amount of profit has been made!

Some people prefer the 'sweepstake' approach, after all, dont matter how much knowledge you have on racing with the grand national, picking just one or two out you are using a sweepstake approach imo, or you like to choose a few to run for you does it though? It's still a great race!

Happy news :)