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Good morning from Aintree racecourse, where the slightly surprising early news today is that the going on the Grand National course is now soft, good-to-soft in places, having been heavy, soft in places when it staged the Foxhunters’ Chase on Thursday.
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“It’s improved again today,” Sulekha Varma, Aintree’s clerk of the course, told ITV Racing this morning. “The only thing I would say about the Grand National course is that the good-to-soft is really just between fences 13 and 14, once you get over [the other] side, it really is pretty soft.
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“Aintree is a course that can dry given the opportunity, it’s been warm and breezy and it’s done exactly that.”
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Something north of 55,000 racegoers are expected at the track this afternoon, but they will not, apparently, be joined by any activists from the group Animal Rising, which attempted to get the race called off last year.
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And they will watch one of the smaller Grand National fields in recent history, as the new minimum field of 34 runners has been reduced to 32. Venetia Williams’s Chambard, a Cheltenham Festival winner in the past who was due to be ridden by his regular amateur rider, Lucy Turner, was scratched after being found to be lame this morning. While you can also delete Run Wild Fred from your calculations.
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❌ Grand National field down to 32 as both Chambard and Run Wild Fred are non-runners… pic.twitter.com/kIPIK296WY
— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) April 13, 2024
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Early betting news is that last year’s winner, Corach Rambler, is a little weak in the market and is now vying for favouritism with I Am Maximus at around 8-1, while Limerick Lace, a “plunge” horse in recent days, is now no bigger than 10-1 and could easily head the market at some stage if the money continues to come for her. Her stamina for this trip is completely unproven, but her full brother, Inothewayurthinkin, won the stayers’ novice chase on the card here yesterday and that may be giving punters confidence that she will get the trip.
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A full runner-by-runner guide to this year’s race is here, some picks for the other ITV races are here – although Caldwell Potter, the likely favourite for the 1.55, is a non-runner – and the action on the track is underway at 1.20.
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Key events
Hello and welcome to Grand National day, the biggest day of the racing year bar none and the one event that truly transcends the sport. Personally, I loved the days before racing’s weights-and-measures man, Phil “Tinkerman” Smith, started to fiddle about with the race but these days it’s truly wide open and the shortlists have become ever longer – everyone has an opinion which are not as easily dismissed and consequently more and more people are having a wager again. There’s nervousness about as the powers that be await to see if the latest tinkering with the track (the race is 20 yards shorter), the fences (No 11 has been lowered), the start (which will be a standing one) and the field (reduced from 40 to 34 maximum) will assuage the critics. Meanwhile, I Am Maximus is now clear favourite …
Latest Randox Grand National betting. pic.twitter.com/ALe4NNWmaa
— Racing TV (@RacingTV) April 13, 2024
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The start (not a standing one)
Greg Wood
Good morning from Aintree racecourse, where the slightly surprising early news today is that the going on the Grand National course is now soft, good-to-soft in places, having been heavy, soft in places when it staged the Foxhunters’ Chase on Thursday.
“It’s improved again today,” Sulekha Varma, Aintree’s clerk of the course, told ITV Racing this morning. “The only thing I would say about the Grand National course is that the good-to-soft is really just between fences 13 and 14, once you get over [the other] side, it really is pretty soft.
“Aintree is a course that can dry given the opportunity, it’s been warm and breezy and it’s done exactly that.”
Something north of 55,000 racegoers are expected at the track this afternoon, but they will not, apparently, be joined by any activists from the group Animal Rising, which attempted to get the race called off last year.
And they will watch one of the smaller Grand National fields in recent history, as the new minimum field of 34 runners has been reduced to 32. Venetia Williams’s Chambard, a Cheltenham Festival winner in the past who was due to be ridden by his regular amateur rider, Lucy Turner, was scratched after being found to be lame this morning. While you can also delete Run Wild Fred from your calculations.
❌ Grand National field down to 32 as both Chambard and Run Wild Fred are non-runners… pic.twitter.com/kIPIK296WY
— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) April 13, 2024
\n\n"}}” config=”{"renderingTarget":"Web","darkModeAvailable":false}”>
Early betting news is that last year’s winner, Corach Rambler, is a little weak in the market and is now vying for favouritism with I Am Maximus at around 8-1, while Limerick Lace, a “plunge” horse in recent days, is now no bigger than 10-1 and could easily head the market at some stage if the money continues to come for her. Her stamina for this trip is completely unproven, but her full brother, Inothewayurthinkin, won the stayers’ novice chase on the card here yesterday and that may be giving punters confidence that she will get the trip.
A full runner-by-runner guide to this year’s race is here, some picks for the other ITV races are here – although Caldwell Potter, the likely favourite for the 1.55, is a non-runner – and the action on the track is underway at 1.20.