Aintree 5 April 2025 A packed enclosure for Grand National Day Healy Racing PhotosThe Grand National Festival at Aintree is one of Britain's most treasured sporting events, centred as it is on the world's most recognisable steeplechase.
For three days in April, the city of Liverpool takes centre stage in the world of horse racing, with the Grand National itself amongst the most-watched and talked about sporting events in the year.
The Aintree Festival takes place in April each year, for three days from Thursday until Saturday. In 2026, the Aintree Grand National Festival takes place from Thursday, April 9 until Saturday, April 11.
Aintree is synonymous with the Grand National. The famous spruce-topped fences are instantly recognisable even to the most casual racing fan, as the horses jump famous obstacles such as The Chair, Foinavon, Becher's Brook and The Canal Turn.
There are two courses at Aintree, the Mildmay Course and the National Course. The Grand National course is triangular with its apex at the Canal Turn the furthest point from the grandstands. The famous run-in includes 'the elbow' and is 494 yards long, which can seem an awful long way for horses in front trying to hold on. Inside it is the Mildmay Course, a sharp track with stiff jumping tests.
Aintree is a flat track which often favours speedy horses and it is considered less of a stamina test compared to the likes of Cheltenham or Punchestown, whose major spring festivals sandwich Aintree.
Each day of the Aintree Festival includes major Grade 1 racing, with the first significant chances for formlines from Cheltenham the previous month to be tested. All told there are 11 Grade 1 contests spread across three days at Aintree. These are:
Boodles Anniversary 4YO Juvenile Hurdle
Manifesto Novices Chase
Aintree Bowl
Aintree Hurdle
Mildmay Novices' Chase
Top Novices' Hurdle
JCB Melling Chase
Sefton Novices' Hurdle
Maghull Novices' Chase
Mersey Novices' Hurdle
Liverpool Hurdle
Aintree's big meeting also boasts some of the most eagerly anticipated handicaps of the season in Britain.
On day two the Topham Handicap Chase goes over the famous National fences while on Saturday the Freebooter Handicap Chase is on the National undercard.
The main event on Merseyside is of course the Grand National itself, the penultimate race on day three and scheduled to go off at 4.00pm on Saturday, April 11 this year.
No horse race commands more singular attention from the wider sporting public than the National, which attracts seasoned punters, housewives and once-a-year sweepstakes hopefuls alike to the great sport of jumps racing. The Grand National remains a staple of free-to-air sporting offerings in Britain and Ireland.
There have been many changes to the race in recent years, mostly geared at equine safety, but the four-and-a-quarter-mile test remains one of the most enduring tests of horse and rider that exists.
The names of past greats like Red Rum and Ginger McCain & top owner and National enthusiast Trevor Hemmings echo in the Aintree aura, while in more recent times the back-to-back wins of Tiger Roll in 2018 and 2019 made for major news and Rachael Blackmore famously becoming the first female rider to win the race 2021 attracted global headlines as Aintree's big race retains a rightful place as one of Britain's most treasured sporting events.
