The Aintree Festival kicks off today ahead of the 176th running of the Randox Grand National this Saturday.
The final squad of 34 horses, including last year’s winner Corach Rambler, has been announced. Check out our comprehensive guide for runners and cyclists for all the details.
Don’t miss our top tips as you prepare for the Grand National. You can also read more about a horse ridden by its owner, a horse ridden by a trainer’s wife, columnist Charlie Brooks on the cocaine problem in racing, and a Kitty’s Light trainer describing how the horse focused on him after his daughter’s leukemia diagnosis.
When is the Aintree Grand National?
The Grand National is the highlight of Aintree’s three-day Grand National Festival, which runs from 11 April to Saturday 13 April this year.
The main event, the Grand National, will take place on Saturday afternoon.
What time does the 2024 Grand National start?
Runners will set off on Saturday, April 13 at 16.00.
Following the controversial 2023 edition of the race, the start time was moved back to 17.15 in an attempt to increase the likelihood of good ground. The Jockey Club said the new start time was part of its “ongoing focus on the welfare of horses”.
Where is the 2024 Grand National Meeting held?
The race is held at Aintree Racecourse on the outskirts of Liverpool. Since the first edition in 1839 the race has never been run officially anywhere else.
Are Grand National tickets available?
Tickets for each day of the festival are available for sale on the Jockey Club website. Prices for adults start from £45 at The Embankment for Grand National day. Many other enclosures are already sold out. The most expensive accommodation package on sale is £1,225. Parking costs an additional £35 or £60 if you want to park within walking distance of the track.
How many horses run in the Grand National?
The total number of horses in the Grand National for 2024 has been reduced from 40 to 34 in order to improve race safety. The highest number of runners was 66 in 1929. In 1883, there were fewer than 10 horses in the race.
When will the horses be announced?
The last 34 horses were confirmed today. As of last year, if a horse is withdrawn after 48 hours of these declarations, that horse will not be replaced.
Initial registrations for the race were due by February 6, and the BHA released the weights (see below) two weeks later, on February 20. Five days of declarations were made on Monday, at which point the number of candidates was reduced. It fell to 51st place. Today it is down to the last 34.
Only a certain number of horses meet the criteria to be allowed to enter the Grand National. Among the qualities they must have:
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Have an official rating (OR) of 130 or more (in 2023 horses only need to have a rating of 125)
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Being 7 years old or older,
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Having completed three or more obstacle races,
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You have completed one steeplechase this season,
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Finishing between 1st and 4th in a steeplechase of 2 miles, 7½ furlongs or longer.
What is the race distance?
Traditionally, the Grand National is defined as a 4½-mile race. However, the official distance is four miles, two miles and 74 yards (4m 2f 74y). This distance is measured within two yards of the innermost rail.
The Grand National is the longest jump race held in the United Kingdom.
How long does the Grand National last?
About nine minutes. The course record belonged to Mr. Frisk in 1990 with 8 minutes 47.8 seconds. That day’s jockey, Marcus Armytage, is now Telegraph Sport’s racing correspondent.
How many fences are there at the Grand National?
The race features 16 individual fences, 14 of which are jumped twice. This means 30 jumps in total.
The hedges are made from Sitka spruce or Norway spruce, which were transported from the Lake District to Aintree by a fleet of trucks. All fences take about three weeks to build.
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Fence 1&17 – 4 ft 6 inches high, 2 ft 9 inches wide
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Fence 2&18 – 4 ft 17 inches high, 3 ft 6 inches wide
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Fence 3&19 – Dig a trench
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Fence 4&20 – 5 ft high, 10 ft 6 in wide (including 7 ft trench on takeoff side)
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Fence 5&21 – 5 ft high, 3 ft 6 inches wide
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Fence 6&22Becher’s Brook – 4 ft 10 in high, 7 ft 6 in wide
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Fence 7&23Foinavon – 4 ft 6 in high, 3 ft wide
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Fence 8&24Channel Return – 5 ft high, 7 ft wide
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Fence 9&25Valentine’s Creek – 5 ft high, 7 ft wide
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Fence 10&26 – 5 ft high, 3 ft wide
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Fence 11&27 – 4 ft 10 in high, 9 ft wide (including 6 ft ditch on landing side)
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Fence 12&28 – 5 ft high, 8 ft 6 in wide (including 5 ft 6 in on landing side)
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Fence 13&29 – 4 ft 7 inches high, 3 ft wide
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Fence 14&30 – 4 ft 6 inches high, 3 ft wide
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Fence 15Chair – 5 ft 2 in high, 9 ft wide (including 6 ft trench on takeoff side)
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Fence 16Jumping from Water – 2 ft 6 inches high
The most famous fences of the Grand National
Aintree hedges are no longer as dangerous as they used to be. But these are still the most notorious obstacles in business.
Chair (Fence 15): The chair is the tallest fence on the course and currently stands five feet two inches tall.
Becher Creek (Fences 6 and 22): The sixth and 22nd fence in the race may not be the biggest, but its difficulty comes from the fact that the landing side is 10 inches lower than the takeoff side. It was named after the jockey Captain Martin Becher, who fell at this stage during the first running of the race in 1839 and hid in the stream to avoid injury.
Valentine Creek (Fence 9&25): It took its name from a horse that allegedly jumped backwards in 1840. Most likely, the horse spun in the air, creating the optical illusion of its hind legs landing first.
Foinavon (Fence 7 and 23): One of the smaller fences, it takes its name from the 100/1 shot who avoided a disastrous pile-up here in 1967 and went on to win.
Channel Return (Fence 8 and 24): As the name suggests, horses have to make a sharp left turn after jumping this 1.5 meter obstacle. Another Aintree legend is that horses that refused to return ended up in the Liverpool and Leeds canal.
Grand National prize money
The Grand National’s total prize fund is £1 million. The first ten horses to pass the pole in 2023 were given prize money as follows.
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£516,000
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£211,100
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£105,500
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£52,700
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£26,500
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£13,200
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£6,800
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£3,600
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£2,000
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£1,000
How does the disability system work?
The purpose of the handicapping process is so that less fancied horses can compete with the best chasers. To achieve this, the highest scoring horses are asked to carry extra weight. Exactly how much weight is determined by a handicapper appointed by the British Horseracing Authority.
The minimum a horse (including a jockey) is allowed to carry is 10st 2lb. The heaviest horse in the race will carry 11st 12lb and all other handicap weights will be calculated from this weight according to each horse’s grade. Last year’s winner Corach Rambler was only carrying 10th 5lb.
In 2015, Many Clouds won by carrying 11.9 ounces, the heaviest weight ever carried by a winner in recent history. The last horse to carry the top weight was Red Rum in 1973, when the highest handicap was set 12th.
What are the changes to this year’s Grand National?
Significant changes have been made to the Grand National for 2024. The changes were made after animal rights protesters ambushed the 2023 event, causing a 15-minute delay. But the Jockey Club insists the changes do not come as a direct response to these protests.
The most important changes are as follows:
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The field was reduced from 40 horses to a maximum of 34 horses. Evidence shows a correlation between the size of the arena and the risk of horses falling.
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The first fence was moved forward 60 yards towards the starting line to reduce the speed at which horses could reach it.
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The start will now be a stationary start on the tape instead of the traditional rolling start. This change was also designed to reduce the speed at which horses reached the first hurdle.
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Each horse must have an official score of at least 130 (instead of 125) and will be examined for jumping errors before being allowed entry.
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The height of fence 11 has been reduced by two inches and the drop on the landing side will be reduced.
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Horses will no longer be led to the course by a handler before the race, but instead will be released to canter in front of the stands.
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The match start time was moved from 17.15 to 16.00.
Mullins gets attention with It’s On The Line
Emmet Mullins warmed up for Saturday’s Grand National, where he rides Noble Yeats, by winning the Randox Foxhunters aboard It On The Line, which went one better than its Cheltenham equivalent last month.
Mullins, whose meticulous and often unorthodox planning saw him win the 2022 National with Noble Yeats, said everything was positive for the horse’s third run at the National, except perhaps the ground.
Noble Yeats is now ready to carry the maximum weight of 11st 12lbs after Conflated was the only horse to retire in the 48-hour stage. At the other end of the handicap, Kitty’s Light will carry number 34, the last slot available in the first National where the field size is under 40.
“He’s heavy for a reason and he came in after a tough race in the Gold Cup last year,” said Mullins of Noble Yeats. “He ran in the Stayers Hurdle this time, so I’m hoping we’ll gain with freshness what we lost on ground.”
Wearing the green and gold colors of JP McManus, It On The Line looked like a challenge for Derek O’Connor but he collected them one by one and came home four and a half lengths clear of Bennys King. Narrow misses for Dan Skelton.
“He is not a natural leader by any means and likes to mull things over, get into a rhythm and figure it out,” said winner Mullins. “I think it’s a good name. I probably wasn’t planning this race after Cheltenham. We had a speculative introduction to it and it would always bring durability into play when it turned into tough ground. That was the biggest impact of me directing it.”
10 of the 22 runners completed the course with new adjustments. Both men landed on the Chair and one of the jockeys who arrived there, Ben Sutton, was taken to hospital for a precautionary x-ray for a back injury. David Maxwell, who will ride Ain’t That A Shame tomorrow, was no worse for being taken from Cat Tiger.
Don’t miss these latest opportunities betting offers – Explore our list just before the Grand National