The strict UK lockdown means that this virtual race could pull in more viewers than the actual Aintree spectacular couldAround lunchtime on Saturday, somebody somewhere will hit “enter” on their keyboard and, a fraction of a second and many millions of calculations later, it will generate the result of the 2020 Virtual Grand National. A few hours after, many millions of viewers – more, perhaps, than might have watched the real thing – will tune in to ITV to watch as the computer’s thought processes get the full CGI treatment and its calculation becomes (virtual) reality.If algorithms are not your thing, think of it as the rolling of a 100-sided dice, with Tiger Roll’s name on about 16 of the...
What would have happened at Aintree on Saturday if the great race had gone ahead? We’ll give an answer at 3pm...It’s a tricky beast, this Virtual Grand National which so many of us will watch on Saturday (ITV, 5pm). Because of our reduced circumstances, it has become something to anticipate on about the same level as that half-pint of Carlsberg that John Mills sinks at the end of Ice Cold In Alex, but it cannot hope to be as satisfying, for all that an immense amount of work has clearly gone in to making it look convincing. Related: Cheltenham faces criticism after racegoers suffer Covid-19 symptoms Here they are - the confirmed 40 runners and riders for #VirtualGrandNational on SaturdayTiger...
From the agony of Crisp to Foinavon’s 100-1 win, here are half a dozen memorable milestones in the story of Aintree’s showpieceMemory Lane: a history of the Grand National in picturesThis article was originally published in April 2009 Continue reading...
How long can racing behind closed doors be maintained? And how will the sport recover when it finally does stop?The Grand National has been cancelled, all British racing is now behind closed doors and the question facing an industry that supports the employment of tens of thousands of people, many of them in rural areas where alternatives are increasingly scarce, is how long that can possibly be maintained.Racing continued, albeit in a very truncated form, through two world wars, as this newsreel footage of a wartime Derby at Newmarket, with an immense crowd in attendance, reminds us. But as the voiceover implies, the decision to continue was not without controversy. “We agree with the government that war workers should have...
The successful jumps trainer is a traditionalist but welcomes the significant changes made at Aintree in the past decadeOn the eve of the Horse Welfare Board’s first press conference, intended to introduce itself and its aims to the world, Willie Mullins gave his support to the idea that racing should move with the times and adjust to changing social mores. The hugely successful jumps trainer described himself as a traditionalist but admitted that, despite his scepticism, good had come of significant changes made to the Grand National in the past decade.Mullins made his comments at his stables on Wednesday, during a discussion of the National Hunt Chase, which became a hot topic at last year’s Festival when turning into an...