Of the 1000’s of horse races organised every year within the UK, just one genuinely stops the nation: the Grand Nationwide at Aintree.
The world’s most prestigious steeplechase options 34 runners taking over the Liverpool course’s 30 Grand Nationwide fences. The four-mile, 2½ furlong race takes not more than 9 minutes.
Right here’s all the things it’s good to learn about this 12 months’s race, together with the modifications made since 2023.
When is the 2023 Grand Nationwide?
The Grand Nationwide is the spotlight of Aintree’s three-day Grand Nationwide Competition, which runs this 12 months from Thursday, April 11 to Saturday, April 13.
The principle occasion, the Grand Nationwide itself, is on the Saturday afternoon.
What time does the race begin?
The runners can be despatched on their manner at 5.15pm on Saturday, April 13.
The Jockey Membership had introduced, after the controversial 2023 edition of the race, that the beginning could be introduced ahead to earlier within the afternoon, to be able to enhance the chance of fine floor. The revealed schedule for 2024, nonetheless, exhibits that no change of time has been made.
The Grand Nationwide is the sixth of seven races that day, on a card that begins at 1.45pm and finishes with the ultimate race at 6.20pm.
How can I watch the race? What TV channel is it on?
By legislation, the Grand Nationwide is one among two horse races that have to be broadcast on free-to-air tv (the Epsom Derby is the opposite). Dwell tv protection can be on ITV and Racing TV.
The three-day Grand Nationwide Competition often welcomes about 150,000 race-going followers within the stands themselves.
Are Grand Nationwide tickets accessible?
Tickets for every day of the competition are on sale via the Jockey Club website. For the Grand Nationwide itself, costs begin at £45 for adults in The Embankment. Many different enclosures have already bought out. The most costly hospitality package deal on sale is £1,225. Automobile parking is an extra £35, or £60 if you wish to park inside simple strolling distance of the course.
Which horses are operating within the 2024 Grand Nationwide?
Solely a sure variety of horses meet the factors for being allowed to race on the Grand Nationwide. Among the many {qualifications} they need to:
- have an Official Score (OR) of 130 or extra (in 2023, horses want solely have a ranking of 125)
- be aged 7 or older,
- have accomplished three or extra steeplechases,
- have accomplished one steeplechase within the present season,
- have completed between 1st and 4th in a steeplechase over 2 miles 7½ furlongs or additional.
Preliminary entries for the race must be made by February 6, with the BHA then publishing the weights two weeks in a while February 20. The five-day declarations happen on the Monday earlier than the race, at which level the sphere can be whittled all the way down to 50.
The ultimate 34 horses for the Grand Nationwide can be confirmed on Thursday, April 11, 48 hours earlier than the race. As of final 12 months, if a horse is withdrawn after these 48-hour declarations, that horse won’t get replaced.
How does the handicapping system work?
The thought of the handicapping course of is that less-fancied horses can compete with the perfect chasers. To attain this, the top-rated horses are requested to hold further weight. Precisely how a lot weight is set by a handicapping components, established by the British Horseracing Authority.
The least a horse is permitted to hold (together with the jockey) is 10st 2lb. The highest-weighted horse will carry 11st 12lb, with each different handicap weight labored out from that weight primarily based upon every horse’s ranking. Final 12 months’s winner, Corach Rambler, was carrying simply 10st 5lb. In 2015 Many Clouds received carrying 11st 9oz, the heaviest weight carried by a winner in current historical past. The final horse to win carrying the highest weight was Crimson Rum in 1973, when the highest handicap was set at 12st.
The place is the 2024 Grand Nationwide?
The race takes place at Aintree Racecourse, on the outskirts of Liverpool. Because the first version in 1839, the race has by no means been held anyplace else.
What are the modifications to this 12 months’s Grand Nationwide?
Important modifications have been made to the Grand National for 2024. The alterations have been made after animal rights protesters ambushed the 2023 event, inflicting a delay of quarter-hour. Nevertheless, the Jockey Membership insists that the modifications didn’t come as a direct response to these protests.
Essentially the most important modifications are as follows:
- The sector has been diminished from 40 horses to a most of 34. Proof exhibits a correlation between the dimensions of a subject and the danger of horses falling.
- The primary fence has been introduced ahead, in the direction of the beginning line, by 60 yards to be able to scale back the velocity at which the horses attain it.
- The beginning will now be a standing begin on the tape, somewhat than the normal rolling begin. This modification can also be designed to scale back the velocity that horses arrive on the first impediment.
- Every horse will need to have an official ranking of a minimum of 130 (somewhat than 125) and can be scrutinised for leaping errors earlier than being permitted to enter.
- Fence 11 has been diminished in top by two inches and can be have the drop on the touchdown facet diminished.
- Horses will not be led onto the course by a handler earlier than the race, as an alternative being launched to canter in entrance of the grandstands.
The Grand Nationwide’s most well-known fences
The Aintree fences should not as perilous as they as soon as had been. Nevertheless, they’re nonetheless probably the most infamous obstacles within the enterprise.
The Chair: The Chair is the best fence on the course, now standing at 5 foot two inches.
Becher’s Brook: The sixth and twenty second fence within the race will not be the most important, however its problem comes from the very fact the touchdown facet is 10 inches decrease than the take-off facet. Named after Captain Martin Becher, a jockey who fell at this stage within the first operating of the race in 1839 and hid within the brook to keep away from harm.
Valentine’s Brook: Named after a horse that allegedly jumped it backwards in 1840. Extra probably, the horse spun round in mid-air to create the optical phantasm that its hind legs landed first.
Foinavon: One of many smaller fences is called after the 100/1 shot who prevented a disastrous pile-up right here in 1967 and went on to win.
Canal Flip: Because the title suggests, horses should take a pointy flip to the left after leaping this five-foot impediment. One other Aintree delusion is that horses used who refused to show ended up within the Liverpool and Leeds canal.