I didn't realise that this had had replies. My prediction failed. But as it came third and Neptune Collanges came first (the relevance of which will be clear in a minute) I'll explain why I took the risk of making it publically.
On Friday morning, after the newspapers listed all the horses running, I posted the following message to 2 different friends:
"even though I can't think why I should associate it in any way with the Grand National - I've fixated on the rather random out of the blue appearance of a shark in my mind's eye as I was drifting to sleep a few nights ago. I noted and remembered it, the fact it just appeared out of nowhere, so have decided I'll treat it as relevant to the race. Will there be a horse with shark in its name? List came out in today's papers.
First thing my eyes fell on.. Neptune Equester..oo.. neptune.. king of the sea..equester is horse.. the sea king's horse.. a poetic description of a shark? But then I noticed another Neptune. Neptune Collonges.. oh for ****'s sake. And then I saw a horse called Seabass. As in a big grey fish.
In short you can make anything fit any number of other things. So I'm not ready to announce my powers to the UN assembly just yet.
But as Seabass is the most direct equivalent to the thing that popped into my head AND when I googled the horse there are all kinds of articles about it being a contender, I've put a bet on it at 25 to 1"
One of the people I posted this two annually claims to always be predicting teh winner and be a bit psychic...so when he responded excitedly that he too had predicted Seabass, and was convinced it would win...although he also was drawn to my mention of Neptune Collonges and bet on both....then my sense that somehting spooky was in the offing took hold.
On Saturday as I googled the horse through the day there were suddenly stories about his odds collapsing.. that it was the big market mover...and by the time of the race it was second favourite, then favourite! At this point a second observation occurred to me.. in the back of my mind I'm sure I've noticed year after year that the eventual winner suddenly had masses of people betting on it as the race approached. You could understand inside knowledge for regular punters, but most of us only show an interest one day a year and know nothing about such things....so the thought of the general population eitehr sensing or causing the outcome entered my imagination... and all this movement towards Seabass is what prompted me to post my prediction on here.
Final bit of oddness is that equally, prior to the race, I wrote to the aforementioned friend another observation. "Remember Party Politics won during hte General Election campaign? If there's more than chance involved in such delightful coincidences what say you a horse with a sea themed name winning during the Titanic anniversary? Let's just hope it doesn't go down..."
Neptune Collanges first, Seabass 3rd.
Did I foresee the winner? Probably not. But its still a little tantalising...