The Grand National is the nation’s favourite horse race, with over 15 million Brits betting on the event every single year.

But, with the race almost impossible to predict, how do people choose their horses?

As the official horse racing betting partner of the Grand National, we decided to find out by taking to the streets of Liverpool – home of Aintree racecourse – with ex-Reds and West Ham footballer Neil ‘Razor’ Ruddock to ask the locals.

We also sent out a survey to 5,000 of our customers to discover all the weird and wacky ways punters – both casual and hardcore – pick their winners.

But how do everybody’s favourite colours and lucky numbers match up with what has proved successful over the last 70 years?

And what trends should we pay attention to when trying to narrow down this year’s field?

We looked back over every single winner of the race since the end of the Second World War to see if we could discover a few secrets.

This is what we learned...