The Grand National Festival is well underway as thousands of spectators flock to Aintree Racecourse to experience to the atmosphere and build up to the world’s biggest horse race.
Conditions have been superb in recent days with sunny and dry conditions predicted for each of the three days with temperatures reaching as high as 19C.
The Met Office has forecast bright sunshine throughout this afternoon as day two of the festival provides the latest action from Aintree. The temperature will reach highs of 19C around 3pm before dipping to around 5C overnight ahead of tomorrow’s Grand National.
15-18mph winds are also due which will slightly cool down those attending the races but it’ll be a hot day with less than a 5% chance of precipitation.
The Grand National Festival runs from Thursday 3 April through to Saturday 5 April with the main event getting underway at 4pm tomorrow afternoon. Racing begins at 1.45pm and the final race of the day is at 5.15pm, though fans can pack in after the gates open each morning.
The weather can play a huge role in the underfoot conditions of the course and with predicted dry spells officials at Aintree have been hard at work to make sure the courses do not run faster than ideal.
Accuweather forecasts highs of 20C for Friday with slight cloud cover on a partly sunny, nice and warm afternoon. For Saturday expect the temperature to drop to 17C and be more comfortable for racegoers watching the Grand National.
This unprecedented dry spring and no predicted rain has demanded acting clerk of the course Jon Pullin take steps to ensure the ground is suitable.
Pullin has been watering the track for over a fortnight and told the Nick Luck Daily Podcast on Tuesday: “The Grand National course is good to soft and the Mildmay course, both chase and hurdles, is good to soft and good in places.
“We commenced watering the week commencing the 17th (of March) and different parts of the track have had differing amounts. It’s an average of 50 millilitres that both tracks have had, the Grand National course is good to soft and we’re aiming to start no quicker than that.”
