Skip to content

Aintree Racecourse

If there is one racecourse that’s name is synonymous with a race it’s Aintree, the home of the Grand National, arguably the most famous horse race in the world.

In last month’s OCP magazine I looked at the Midlands racecourse Uttoxeter. The home of the Midland Grand National. This month I am heading north to Merseyside to the home where racing legends are made Aintree.

In this article I will look at the track’s location and its very special history.

As well as the track configuration and some of the big races to be held at the upcoming Randox Grand National Festival.

I will also be highlighting some significant track stats.

On Course Profits free Horse Racing magazine

Location

Aintree racecourse is located on Merseyside. It’s about 6 ½ miles from the centre of Liverpool, on the A59, just a mile from the M57 & M58 which themselves link up with the M62 and M6, providing easy access from Manchester, Leeds and the Midlands for those driving to the course.

For those travelling by train to Aintree, the nearest mainline station is Liverpool Lime Street which has direct train services from London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. It’s then it’s a short 5 min walk to Liverpool Central which runs train services to Aintree.

There are plenty of trains running from Liverpool on race days with the racecourse being opposite Aintree railway station.

The literal meaning of the word Aintree is ‘one tree’, or ‘tree standing alone’, which underlines just how flat and featureless the area used to be. It was to be that very flatness that would make the area a great place for horse racing.

History

Horse racing has a long history in the locality. In the 18th century racing took place on the beach at nearby Crosby. However, it was in the early part of the 19th century that the sport took place at Aintree. All thanks to a local pub landlord named William Lynn in 1829.

It was Lynn who is credited with inaugurating the race in 1836 that would become known worldwide as the ‘Grand National’. That first race was won by the Duke ridden by Captain Becher, whose name lives on today in the Becher Chase. Which is held over the national fences each December.

The 1839 renewal of the race is now accepted by most racing historians as the first modern ‘Grand National’. That year’s race was won by the aptly named horse Lottery. By this time over 50,000 people were attending the meeting each year.

During World War 1 the race was moved to the long defunct Gatwick Racecourse and called the “War National”. The course became an almost replica of Aintree, even including the iconic spruce fences. The last national run at Gatwick was won by Poethlyn who was ridden by Lester Piggott’s grandfather Ernie.

As was the case with most racecourses Aintree was closed and the race abandoned from 1941 to 1945 due to World War II.

Memorable Aintree Moments

From Golden Miller to Foinavon

In 1934 Golden Miller became the first and indeed only horse to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup and Grand National in the same year.

In the 1950’s the race was dominated by Irish Trainer Vincent O’Brien who won three Grand Nationals in succession in the 1950s. O’Brien would later become better known for his training of flat horses like Nijinsky.

The 1956 race is famous for the “Devon Loch” incident when Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother’s horse Devon Loch looked set for a historic royal victory. But for some unexplained reason the horse half-jumped into the air on the run in and collapsed in a belly-flop on the turf.

In 1967 the race grabbed the world’s attention. As 100/1 shot Foinavon took advantage of a pile up at the 23rd fence where the rest of the field either fell, refused or were hampered. The fence is now named after the horse.

The incident is described superbly here by commentator Michael O'Hehir.

Red Rum: An Aintree Legend

Red Rum wins his third Grand National in 1977.

Of course, one horse is synonymous with the race – Red Rum. “Rummy” as he was affectionally known, was trained locally by Ginger McCain.

For some reason the horse just loved Aintree and its big fences winning the race for the first time in 1973 and going onto win it twice more and finishing runner-up on two further occasions.

His first win in the race looked an unlikely one coming to the last, as he was well behind the leader Crisp coming to the last but the bold jumping top-weight who was 20 lengths clear coming to four out just ran out of petrol on the run in and was overhauled by Red Rum in the shadow of the post. Crisp was trying to give Red Rum 24lb that day. An impossible task with the benefit of hindsight.

Not for the first time or last, the famous Aintree run-in produced another thrilling finish to the race which is vividly captured here.

In 1974 Red Rum retained his national crown and also added the Scottish Grand National to his win record.

Red Rum’s achievement’s in the race will never be matched. He completed in all the five nationals that he ran in, jumping fences that were much more formidable than they are today.

Not only is it hard to imagine a horse winning a Grand National more than once these days but also Red Rum never fell in a 100-race career.

Champion’s National

The 1981 Grand National was won by Aldaniti ridden by Bob Champion.

In a race that always seems to provide a great back story it was a jockey’s turn to steal the headline. Champion had two years previously been diagnosed with testicular cancer and given only a few months to live. His story would later be immortalised on the silver screen with John Hurt playing the jockey in the 1983 film Champions.

Jenny Pitman: First Lady of Aintree

If the equine name most associated with the race is Red Rum. The human equivalent has to be trainer Jenny Pitman who became the first women to train a Grand National winner with Corbiere in 1983.

Pitman would win the race again in 1995 with Royal Athlete and also trained 1991 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Garrison Savanah to finish runner-up in that years Grand National.

The Void National

The trainer would also be centre stage in 1993 in the “national that never was”.

The race was a low point for the race. Prior to the start some animal rights protesters had managed to get onto the track. The chaos continued as several horses got caught up in the starting tape on the second attempt to get the race started. On this occasion all but nine horses set off for the first fence not realising a second false start had been called.

Most jockeys managed to stop their mounts during the race but seven led by the Jenny Pitman trained Esha Ness completed the full race amidst a chorus of boos from racegoers.

Continuing to Make the Headlines

There was more chaos in 1997 as the Grand National had to be postponed due to an IRA bomb scare, which led to the evacuation of the racecourse.

The race was run on the Monday and won by Lord Gyllene.

In 2015 jockey Leighton Aspell took the headlines as he won the race for the second year running on Many Clouds, following his win in the previous year on Pineau de Re.

Flat Racing and Motor Racing

For many years Aintree Racecourse also hosted flat racing. Red Rum actually dead heated in 5f race on his racecourse debut as a two-year-old. A Derby winner also ran at the course in 1954. as Never Say Die finished runner-up in a race on his seasonal reappearance as 3-year-old before going on to win that years Epsom Derby.

The Grand National Meeting itself was a mixed card of flat and jumps racing until flat racing was ended at the course in 1976.

Aintree also holds the distinction of being the only racecourse to host Grand Prix motor racing when the British Grand Prix came to Aintree on five occasions between 1955 & 1962 before moving to Brands Hatch. The Aintree motor racing circuit ran alongside the track and finished in front of the grandstand.

The circuit was still in use into the 1980s.

Aintree Survives into the 21st Century

Looking back, it’s hard to believe that in the early 1970s there were real doubts as to whether racing would continue at Aintree. In fact, there was plenty of speculation prior to the 1973 running of the race that that would be the final ever Aintree Grand National.

The racecourse had been neglected and had become shabby, and but for the efforts of Red Rum and of course bookmakers Ladbrokes who came into rescue the track from demolition the racecourse today would have been the site of a large housing estate.

The future of Aintree racecourse is no longer threatened by sale to property developers. However, another threat to it’s future has emerged in recent years, that of safety.

In 2011 two horses were killed in the Grand National. Both deaths could be seen by the millions watching the race on TV and the fatalities led to much criticism of the race in the media. Events in that year’s race led Aintree Racecourse and the British Horseracing Authority to make some notable modifications to the height and internal construction of the famous Aintree fences.

The Grand National is like an equine Brexit it divides public opinion like nothing else. The modifications made to the race in recent years have made it less dangerous to both horses and jockeys.

It may not be the same race as the one that Red Rum raced in but it remains a true test of horse and jockey.

The fact that Aintree fences have names – Bechers Book, Valentines, the Chair and the Canal Turn – underlines how important the track is to National Hunt racing.
Apart from the great race itself Aintree’s Grand National Festival is now second only to the Cheltenham Festival in importance in the jumps racing calendar.

The dark days back in the 80s when crowds had dwindled to less than 10,000 are long gone. The crowds have gradually returned to watch not just the Grand National but to enjoy a whole host of Grade 1 races, including the Aintree Hurdle, the Aintree Bowl and the Melling Chase. As well as the Foxhunters Chase and Topham handicap chase which are both run over the national fences.

Aintree also stages two minor meetings in May & June. As well as three fixtures between October and December. The November meeting features the Old Roan Chase and the December meeting sees two races run over the national fences the Becher Chase and Grand Sefton Chase.

Track Configuration

The Grand National course is almost triangular in shape as can be seen on the map below.

An alternative map can be viewed on the Racing Post here.

On the inner of the National course is the Mildmay course.

The majority of the races run at Aintree are actually run on this course. The Mildmay fences are much easier to jump than the National ones but they are still considered to be tougher than fences at many other jumps courses. The course is fairly sharp in nature.

Both courses are flat and you have to have a horse that travels well into its races and can get into a good jumping rhythm from the off. The longer a horse is on the bridle, particularly on the National course the better its chance of winning its race.

Jumping the last, horses face one of the longest run-ins to the winning post in racing. The famous ‘elbow’ and the run to the winning post has enabled many a dramatic finish which has changed the whole complexion of a race.

Aintree also has a separate hurdle course which can be seen here.

Aintree Stats

Here are a few interesting trainer track stats that will hopefully enable you to identify some winners at Aintree for the Grand National Meeting and the other fixtures at the track throughout the rest of the year.

Let’s begin by looking at some general stats including favourite stats at the course since 2014.

The stats below are from Jan 1st 2014 to the time of writing (10/03/19) and cover all jumps meetings at the course. Once again, I am using the ever useful www.horseracebase.com for the stats.

The results below contain 279 winners from 3139 runners.

General Stats:

Top 3 in the betting provided 68% winners from 28% of the total runners
Top four last time out provided 61% of the total winners from 55% of the total runners.

Fate of Favourites

Now let’s look at the fate of the favourites.

On average favourites, including Joint & Co favs, win about 35% of all National Hunt races.

How have favourites fared at Aintree in the period under research?

All Favourites have produced:

  • 88 winners from 305 runners 29% -33.39 A/E 0.93 159 placed 52%

Breaking those results down into non-handicaps and handicaps and looking at last time out placings:

  • Non-Handicaps – 50 winners from 140 runners 36% -19.48 A/E 0.90 80 placed 57%
  • Handicaps – 38 winners from 168 runners 23% -13.91 A/E 0.97 79 placed 48%

Favourites that won their last race have produced – 27 winners from 110 runners 25% -43.31 A/E 0.72 49 placed 45%.

Favourites that had finished outside the top four on their last start produced – 35 winners from 89 runners 40% +38.37 A/E 1.38 54 placed 61%.

The competitive nature of racing at Aintree means that favourite backers have struggled, performing well below the average for favourite winners.

Indeed, compare the fate of favourites with Uttoxeter which has the favourite winning 38% of the time. At Uttoxeter last time out winners who were favourite for the race have been profitable to follow but at Aintree it’s very much the reverse and are performing 28% below market expectations.

Once again, the only positive stat for favourite backers is with favourites who finished outside of the first four on their last run.

Trainers & Favourites

If you’re a favourite backer, then the best performing trainers when the money is down are:

Trainer Stats and Angles

Given the Grand National meeting is not far away, I am going to split the trainer stats into two parts.

The first group are for all meetings at the racecourse since 2014. The second group are the top trainers at the Grand National Festival only.

Let’s begin by looking at the top trainers numerically since the start of 2014.

Top Trainers: All Meetings

And then the record of the top trainers at the Grand National Festival only.


Top Trainers: Grand National Festival

Nicky Henderson top’s both winners’ tables.

Whilst the eye-catching results have come from the Colin Tizzard’s stable who have had 12 winners at Aintree since the start of 2014 with 11 of them coming at the Grand National Meeting.

Here is the breakdown of his record per year.

Last year wasn’t as good as the three previous Aintree Festival’s but even backing all his runners blind was profitable.

If you concentrate on his runners that had between four to seven runs in the season, in all races but handicap hurdles, they produced:

10 winners from 27 runners 37% +111.94 A/E 2.58 15 placed 56% (each way +141.53).

System: Back Colin Tizzard trained runners at the Aintree Grand National Festival, who had run between four and seven times that season in all races, excluding handicap hurdles.

Aintree Grand National Festival: Big Races

The two races that I am highlighting are the Topham Chase and the Grand National.

The Randox Health Topham Steeple Chase (Grade 3) – 2m 5f

First run in 1949 the Topham Handicap Chase has become one of three races run over the Grand National Fences at the Aintree Festival, the other two races being the Fox Hunters Chase (amateur jockeys) and of course the Grand National itself.

Ultragold, trained by Colin Tizzard, has won the last two renewals of the race and looks likley to bid for the hat trick this year.

If he was to win the race again, he would match the record of Always Waining who won the race three times in 2010. 2011 & 2012.

Another notable hat trick in the race was Nicky Henderson who won the race between 2013 & 2015 with three different horses.

Trends

What sort of horse wins the race?

Looking at the trends since 2008. Nine of the last eleven winners, or 82 % of winners from 24% of the total runners shared the following traits:

  • Official Rating: 132+
  • Days Since Last Run: 6 to 30
  • Runs In Season: 4 to 8
  • Last Time Out Placing: Not First

The Randox Health – Grand National – Steeple Chase (4m 2 ½ f)

Not only is it arguably the most famous horse race in the world but it also provides one of the biggest tests for horse and jockey as they negotiate two circuits of The Grand National course.

Trends

The race has changed in recent years the fences are not as demanding and the race distance has been shortened. Still it takes a special horse to win the race. But what sort of horse wins this unique test?

Ten of the last eleven winners of the race or 91% of the winners from just 27% of the total runners shared the following:

  • Horses Age: 8yo to 11yo
  • Maximum Distance Won: 3m 1f +
  • Runs In 90 Days: 1 to 3
  • Handicap Chase Wins: 1 to 3

The next stop in this tour of British racecourses moves across the North of England to Yorkshire and one of my local tracks Pontefract.

Want to learn how John Burke wins, read some of his research here


>