The Grand National horse race will take place on 11
April this year. There are 3 meetings which are held on the Thursday,
Friday and Saturday. The Friday meeting is known as ‘Ladies Day’. The famous horse race is held in Aintree,
Liverpool. It brings many visitors from across the world to the
city. This includes many celebrities, royalty and famous sports people.
Liverpool has a certain buzz about it on ‘Ladies
Day’. The city becomes a fashion parade of beautifully dressed women,
wearing some amazing clothes, some quite outrageous too. The hair and
make-up perfect. Men also get dressed-up, in their suits looking very
smart and sophisticated. Champagne and canopies are in full flow.
After the last race, a lot of the visitors go the city centre and continue
their celebrations into the early hours of the morning; then up early for the
start of the next day’s races.
A tradition for some local families is to get
together with family and friends. Each will bring some food whether it is
sandwiches, cakes, nibbles. They gather around a television ready to
watch the ‘big race’. Some
families will have what they call a ‘sweep’. This is where they pay for
piece of paper which holds the name of a horse that is being entered into the
race. Nobody can select a particular horse. The name of the horses that
are running in the race, are written on paper. The paper is folded up and
placed into a box. Each person who has entered the sweep must pick out
one of the pieces of paper. They may pay 10p, 50p or £1 for the piece of
paper. The winning horse and the person who holds the paper with the name
of the winning horse, wins the money collected.
Excitement grows as the race begins, and each
person (who has a piece of paper with the name of a horses written on it), will
start shouting out the name of their horse hoping to
be the winner.
The race doesn’t last particularly long, however
the The Grand National is run over
4½ miles (7.24 km), sometimes on soft ground, which makes the race all the
more demanding on stamina and jumping. The race is considered among the most
demanding steeplechases in the world. The lead has often changed hands during
the 494-yard (452 m) run-in after the final fence. There are usually 40
horses taking part in the race but fewer than ten may in fact complete the course.
In 1928, 42 horses started and only two finished the course. The record for the
most victories in the Grand National is held by Red Rum, who won three times in the 1970s, in addition to
coming second twice. A statue of the legendary horse now stands proudly in Aintree
Race Course.
In 1997 Aintree was evacuated when a hoax threat was made. The police evacuated 60,000 people from the course, stranding 20,000 race-goers, media personnel and those connected to the competing horses, as their vehicles remained locked inside the confines of the course. Initially, spectators were evacuated from the stands onto the course itself but after consultation with the police, course clerk Charles Barnett advised via the live broadcast that everyone would have to leave the course completely.
The people of
Liverpool responded by opening their homes to race-goers stranded overnight in
the city, with tens of thousands of temporary homeless people being offered a
bed for the night in the homes around the course.
So, as you can see
Liverpool is not only home to two great football teams but also to the Grand
National. A sport enjoyed by lots of
people from all different backgrounds.
We all hope that the
weather will be suitable for everyone for the Grand National this year. If you are fortunate to attend the races we
would love to see any photographs or hear any stories that you would like to
share with us. Leave a comment or send us your own post for the blog!
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