Course Guide: Aintree, Home of the Grand National

Course Guide: Aintree, Home of the Grand National

**Location:** Ormskirk Road, Aintree, Liverpool, L9 5AS | **Track Type:** Left-handed | **Courses:** Mildmay Course, Grand National Course | **Races:** National Hunt and Mixed | **Surface:** Turf | **Major Meeting:** Grand National Festival (April)

Overview

Aintree Racecourse on the outskirts of Liverpool is home to the Grand National, the most famous steeplechase in the world and one of the most watched sporting events in Britain each year. The course’s history goes back to 1829, when the first Aintree meeting was held. The Grand National itself was first run in 1839 (sometimes credited to 1836 in various traditions) and has been a fixture on the British sporting calendar ever since.

The 2026 Grand National Festival is scheduled for 9 April at Aintree, less than a month after the Cheltenham Festival. The three-day meeting provides the National Hunt season with its second great spring landmark, the first being Cheltenham in March, before the jump racing calendar gives way to the Flat season through the summer.

The Courses

Aintree operates two distinct racing circuits, which produce very different challenges.

The Mildmay Course is a conventional left-handed hurdles and fences course used for the first two days of the Grand National Festival. Its fences are standard regulation obstacles, challenging but similar in character to those found at Cheltenham and other major venues. The Mildmay Course hosts key Grade 1 races including the Betway Aintree Hurdle (a championship event for two-mile hurdlers), the JLT Melling Chase, and the Liverpool Hurdle for stayers.

The Grand National Course is unique. It measures 4 miles 514 yards and incorporates 30 fences with two circuits of the course. Its obstacles differ fundamentally from regulation National Hunt fences: they are built with a spruce-covered face but have an open ditch on the landing side that requires horses to take off early and jump wide rather than accurately. The most formidable fences are Becher’s Brook (with its significant drop on the landing side), the Canal Turn (requiring a sharp left turn immediately after landing), the Chair (the tallest fence on the circuit, 5ft 2in high, jumped only once in the National), and Valentine’s Brook.

The Grand National Course is run exclusively for the Grand National and a limited number of Grand National Trial/Foxhunters’ races. The demands it places on a horse’s courage, jumping adaptability, stamina, jumping symmetry, are different from those required for any other British jump race, which is why specialist preparation for Aintree has become a training discipline in itself.

The Grand National

The Grand National is run on the Saturday of the three-day Festival, typically as the final major race of the afternoon. A field of up to 40 runners contests the race over 4 miles 514 yards, jumping 30 fences. The winner takes a prize fund totalling over £1 million. The race is broadcast to over 500 million viewers globally across more than 140 countries, making it the most-watched horse race in the world.

The 2025 Grand National was won by Nick Rockett, trained by Willie Mullins and ridden by Patrick Mullins. That result, the second consecutive Mullins-family win following I Am Maximus in 2024, reflected the Irish yard’s extension of its national hunt dominance into the sport’s most famous handicap. The 2026 renewal is scheduled for Saturday 11 April.

Recent Grand National winners have tended to carry middle weights, typically around 10st 10lb to 11st 5lb, and to have substantial course experience or experience of similar long-distance tests. Horses trained for maximum stamina and athletic jumping over regulation fences do not always succeed at Aintree; the Grand National rewards a specific combination of courage over unusual obstacles, stamina across 4+ miles, and the tactical nous to survive 40 horses over the early fences.

Going at Aintree

Aintree’s ground management differs from Cheltenham’s. The course is flatter and the drainage less aggressively engineered, meaning its going is more susceptible to wet weather and typically sits at Good to Soft or Soft in early April. In most years, the Grand National is run on ground somewhere between Good to Soft and Soft, conditions that suit proven stayers more than horses built for pace on quicker surfaces.

The contrast with Cheltenham’s typically drier Festival going can be significant for horses campaigned through both meetings. Horses that excelled on Cheltenham’s fast Good to Soft may find Aintree’s April ground more demanding.

Key Festival Races Beyond the Grand National

The Grand National Festival is not just about the headline race. The three-day meeting hosts significant Grade 1 contests:

Betway Aintree Hurdle(Grade 1, 2m 4f), a key championship hurdle for middle-distance hurdlers, frequently won by horses that have also competed at Cheltenham.
JLT Melling Chase(Grade 1, 2m 4f, a top-level chase for two-and-a-half-mile specialists.
Randox Topham Chase, run over the Grand National fences but at a shorter distance, providing a test of National-type jumping ability.
Liverpool Hurdle (Grade 1, 3m 1f), a championship hurdle for long-distance stayers, frequently targeting Cheltenham’s Stayers’ Hurdle runners.

Accessibility

Aintree is located approximately 4 miles north of Liverpool city centre. It is accessible by rail to Aintree station (Merseyrail Ormskirk line) from Liverpool Central, approximately 15 minutes. Road access is via the M57 or M58; parking is available at the course and at various park-and-ride sites during the Festival.