Three days at Aintree, 8 to 10 April 2027: Opening Day on the Thursday, Ladies Day on the Friday and the Randox Grand National itself on the Saturday.
The Randox Grand National, the most watched horse race in the world, closes a three-day festival at Aintree Racecourse in Aintree, Merseyside, from Thursday 8 to Saturday 10 April 2027.
The race was first run at Aintree on 26 February 1839. It is a handicap steeplechase over four miles and 514 yards, two circuits of a course whose fences carry names that have entered the language.
The handicapper sets the weights so that every horse in the field could in theory win. That is why people who follow nothing else in racing still have an opinion about it.
Entry is held to a standard. A horse must be seven or older, rated 125 or better, and already placed in a chase of at least two and a half miles. The prize fund reached £1 million in 2022, half of it to the winner, more than any other jump race carries.
Opening Day on the Thursday and Ladies Day on the Friday carry championship jump races of their own. Ladies Day draws a crowd from Liverpool and the north-west who treat the afternoon as a civic occasion.