The Grand National Out To Prove Its Label As The World’s Most Famous Race

Emmanuel Wonder

April 8, 2016

On Saturday the Aintree Festival begins and while that name does not mean much to most of us, it is one particular race that will raise intrigue. The most famous race in the world is running during this celebration of racing of the four legged kind. The Grand National is a national obsession in the UK and it has never been more popular in the world too, easily becoming the biggest race in the world in viewers. While last month’s Cheltenham Festival made the papers for all the wrong reasons, the Grand National is hoping to put the focus back on the racing again.

Last month saw the focus fall on a pair of footballers displaying shocking behaviour. The Grand National follows this year and organisers are hoping that the event will showcase the best of horse racing and that everyone will stay on their best behaviour at the famous race.

Started in 1848 by William Lynn, who owned local Waterloo Hotel, the race has become not only the biggest in the UK’s racing calendar but the world’s. The race is two laps of a National Hunt course, which is a distance of 7,141km at Aintree. The 40 horses, who have to get over 30 jumps, and some of them are treacherous. The most famous jumps Beecher’s Brook and The Chair have cost many horses the race. The hurdles used to be very dangerous for the horses and the Grand National has a unfortunate stat that 4 out of every 1000 horses lose their lives. Aintree has worked closely with animal rights group to improve this.

The race is undoubtedly the biggest in the world with not only 9 million people watching in the UK but almost 600 million globally. In the UK it is hugely popular with workplaces often carrying out a sweepstake amongst staff with the same gusto as secret Santa. It is very popular among regular punters too with 154,000 people making the pilgrimage every year to Aintree, making it one of the biggest and most famous racecourses in the world. Aintree provides a hugely popular day out with a party atmosphere and it is believed 260,000 pints will be drunk over the course of the festival. Drinking and racing has been in the news lately for all the wrong reasons with two young footballers caught at the Cheltenham Festival displaying appalling behaviour under the influence of alcohol. It is not all obscenity, however, with much glamour involved too. One in three bettors are women and they have their own dedicated day at the festival in which the best dresses and hats are on show, sometimes this takes more importance than the racing!

At this year race a horse called Many Clouds will be trying to achieve the enviable triumph of back to back Grand Nationals after winning last year. The horse picked up the £500,00 prize money and with it has become the favourite to win. The most famous horse to ever run the Grand National is Red Rum and would have made the odds easy to call for bookmakers, who is the last horse to get back to back wins and also the only horse to have ever won three Grand Nationals. This year’s race will be the biggest yet and as long the punter behaves themselves, they could witness something special if the yellow and green quartered jockey of Many Cloud triumphs at this race.