The grand national


When one mentions the word Aintree in terms of sporting significance, the immediate follow on is “Grand National” and it is that time of year again when millions of horse racing fans focus on the world’s greatest steeplechase.


The Grand National has always been run over the same course at Aintree and consists of two circuits of sixteen fences, the first fourteen of which are jumped twice.Covering four and a half miles, it is the longest of any national Hunt event in the country with the run in from the final fence well over a quarter of a mile. It was first run in 1839, and at that time was nothing more than a cross country steeplechase with horses negotiating gates, hedges and ditches that were all part of the natural countryside terrain before completing one circuit of the racecourse.


The majority of the race therefore took place not on the actual Aintree Racecourse but instead in the adjoining


countryside.


The modern day Grand National is of course, apart from the trip across the Melling Road, confined to the actual racecourse.


The most famous fence is without a doubt Becher’s Brook, named after Captain Martin Becher who fell there in the first National and took shelter in the small brook running along the landing side of the fence while the remainder of the field thundered over.


Fence number nine, Valentines, has rather a strange heritage as far as the name itself is concerned, reportedly named after the horse


Valentine who is reputed to have jumped the fence hind legs


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