Congratulations to I Am Maximus and jockey Paul Townsend, winners of the 2024 Grand National!
The Grand National Festival opens on Thursday 11th April 2024 in the build up to the most famous event in the horse racing calendar! Sponsored by Randox, the Grand National 2023 steeplechase takes place at Aintree in Liverpool on Saturday 13th April at 4pm.
This is the UK’s most popular race meeting and people all over the world will be placing their bets on the big race, watching their favourite horses and jockeys take on The Chair and Becher’s Brook!
This famous sporting event has found its way into many EFL classrooms with horse racing themed lessons and vocabulary now the order of the week. Join us for a few horsey ideas that you can take into the winner’s enclosure (aka. the EFL classroom)!
The Grand National – the UK’s most famous horse race
Horse racing is one of the great sporting passions of the UK and the Grand National is the annual race that gets everyone on the edge of their seat.
2024 will see the action take place in front of an audience for the third time since being cancelled in 2020 due to the Covid pandemic, and then being held behind closed doors in 2021.
Over 600 million people across the world are set to tune into the 176th Grand National. Even those who never bet or don’t usually enjoy sport will be having a flutter at the weekend.
One of the attractions is the large number of horses racing, giving lots of opportunity to study the horses and jockeys. It is also fun to bet with (and against!) family members and watch the exciting race together.
Visually, the Grand National is a stunning event too with the sheer number of horses galloping making it feel like a stampede from a Western film, rather than a traditional horse race!
The Grand National Event Schedule
The Randox Health Grand National Festival 2024 begins on Thursday 11th April with the Grand Opening Day filled with exciting horse races. This will be followed by live music and entertainment.
Then on Friday we have Ladies’ Day, where elegance and fine hats take centre stage with the Best Dressed prize up for grabs, along with many more thrilling horse races.
Finally, Grand National Day arrives on Saturday, where the world’s greatest steeplechase gets underway at 4pm, watched by 600 million people at home.
The Grand National was cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic and the race was held behind closed doors in 2021, which meant that no members of the public were allowed to watch live at Aintree. The number of television viewers was especially high in 2021, as horse racing fans tuned in for the first time in 2 years.
Excitement levels are high for 2024, as racegoers flock yet again to Aintree!
Grand National Winners
This year’s event marks the 47th anniversary of Red Rum’s record third Grand National victory in 1977. Red Rum was a famous and highly successful steeplechaser. This champion horse won the Grand National in 1973, 1974 and 1977. He finished second in the intervening years, 1975 and 1976.
Tiger Roll won the Grand National in 2018 and 2019. Ridden by Davy Russell, the 4-1 favourite was the first horse to win back-to-back Nationals since Red Rum in 1973 and 74.
Rachael Blackmore became the first female jockey to win the Grand National in 2021, racing to victory on Minella Times. After two wins at the Cheltenham Festival this year, we’re excited to see how Rachael Blackmore fares in this year’s Grand National, where she will be riding for the De Bromhead stable.
As the Grand National is a handicap race, the highest ranked horse in the race carries top weight – which means the winners will have a heavier weight to carry next time. The extra weight is designed to make the race harder for the top rated horses to give everyone a more even chance of winning.
Famous Fences in the Grand National
The first official Grand National was run in 1839, however, the first race on the Aintree course was run three years earlier in 1836. This earlier race was won by The Duke, who was ridden by Captain Becher, who gave his name to the most famous fence in the Grand National.
The Grand National is famous for its number of difficult fences, including Becher’s and The Chair. The most notorious jumps are:
Becher’s Brook – This is the 6th fence and the most famous fence, named after Captain Becher who fell here. There is a steep drop and a 5ft 6in wide brook on the landing side, which takes horse by surprise.
The Chair – This is the 15th fence and the highest fence in the course. The Chair is 5ft 2in in high with a 6ft ditch on the take-off side. This fence is only jumped once during the race.
1. Grand National circuit at Aintree
The Canal Turn – This is the 8th fence and jockeys need to jump this at an angle in order to cope with the 90 degree turn which comes immediately afterwards. The channel of water directly in front of the landing zone increases the difficulty of this fence.
Valentine’s – This is the 9th fence with a 5ft 6in brook on the landing side. Valentine’s is unrelated to the most romantic day of the year. In fact, the fence is named after a horse that is said to have jumped hind legs first over the fence in 1840!
Foinavon – One of the smaller fences in the Grand National course, Foinavon is named after the 100/1 winning horse from the 1967 race who managed to avoid a disastrous pile-up at this fence.
The Water Jump – this is a long jump rather than a high jump and comes right at the end of the course. The water jump is only jumped once during the race.
Grand National race statistics
During the race, the horses will run 4.5 miles and jump 30 fences in total (they run the course twice).
After jumping the last fence, the horses have to continue running another 474 yards – this is the ‘run-in’. Roughly half way along this run, ‘the elbow’ takes horses and jockeys off to the side, removing The Chair and the Water Jump from the second circuit.
This last part brings a huge amount of excitement to the race because many things can happen during this final mad dash to get to the finishing post.
With no fences to get in the way for the final push, this is all about pure speed and determination!
2. The finishing post at Aintree
Controversy Over the Grand National
There is some controversy over the safety of the Grand National. Animal rights activists complain about the potentially dangerous number of horses racing together.
There are also concerns over the length of the race and the difficulty of the jumps.
There are normally 40 runners in the race and speeds can reach up to 40 miles per hour, so there is a lot of potential for injury and falls.
Animal rights concerns
Sadly, a horse might have to be put down (euthanised) after the race if they are badly injured. The Grand National has had an unpleasant number of fatalities over the years.
This is a very difficult part of the event that many people find upsetting, understandably. This risk of serious injury or death is also the main reason why many animal rights activists oppose the race.
Grand National EFL Lesson
With so much available vocabulary and many interesting themes surrounding horse racing and the Grand National in particular, this sporting event can easily be used as a springboard into discussion about many issues in the EFL classroom.
This topic can be a useful way into discussing not only horse racing and the Grand National in an EFL lesson, but also other issues and topics, such as horses and animals in general, pets, animal rights, racing and sports betting.
Advanced EFL students could form a discussion group to talk about animal rights and the potential dangers of horse racing alongside ideas for safety precautions.
Whenever there is a controversial topic in the classroom, it can be useful for some students to argue from a ‘For’ stance and others to take an ‘Against’ attitude.
Of course, any such debate needs to be undertaken with sensitivity as controversial discussion topics can cause tensions to run high.
The Grand National Vocabulary
There is plenty of English vocabulary and historical information about the Grand National in this article that could be used in the EFL classroom to form a comprehension lesson.
Students will enjoy reading about the famous race and a general discussion of the Grand National will have many useful words and phrases that can be used in an EFL lesson.
Some interesting words to add to a vocabulary list would be:
The Grand National (famous British horse race)
Aintree (the race course where the Grand National is held)
Steeplechase (a race with fences and ditches as obstacles)
Horse racing (a sport where horses ridden by jockeys race against each other)
Bookmaker / Bookie (a person/company licensed to accept bets)
Saddle (the seat on the horse’s back where the jockey sits)
A horse’s saddle
Stirrups (the jockey’s feet sit in stirrups)
Bridle (the straps that sit around the horse’s face)
Bit (the piece of horse tack that sits in the horse’s mouth)
Reins (the jockey uses the reins to steer the horse)
Horse tack (riding accessories and equipment that fit to a horse to enable it to be ridden)
Course (Aintree is the Grand National course)
Fences (the obstacles the horse jumps over)
Jockey (rider of the horse)
Jockey ‘silks’ or ‘colours’ (used to describe a jockey’s colourful, patterned jacket worn for racing, though the term traditionally referred to the breeches and bib)
Winner’s enclosure (where the winning horse is led to parade)
Finishing post (pass the post to win!)
Royal enclosure (where the Royals sit to watch the race)
Ladies’ Day (the second day of the race meeting, famous for women wearing fancy hats)
Final straight / Home stretch (the last part of a race run along the flat towards the finishing post)
Place a bet (to bet on an outcome)
Have a flutter (slang expression meaning ‘to place a bet’)
Odds (the chances of a win)
Favourite (the horse with the shortest odds to win)
‘Each way’ bet (a bet on a horse to finish 1st – 4th)
On the nose (slang expression meaning a bet on a horse to win)
Grand National 2023:
Corach Rambler and jockey Derek Fox won the Grand National 2023. Trained by Lucinda Russell, Corach Rambler was the favourite to win the National at 8/1.
Grand National 2022:
Noble Yeats and jockey Sam Waley-Cohen won the Grand National 2022. This was Sam’s last ride before retiring, so it was a dream send-off for him. Noble Yeats was the first seven-year-old to win the National since 1940.
Grand National 2021:
Minella Times and Rachael Blackmore won the Grand National in 2021. Rachael Blackmore made history as the first female jockey to win the iconic race, which was held behind closed doors for the first time due to Covid-19 restrictions.
Your thoughts on the Grand National
Can you think of any more useful horse racing vocabulary?
Do you find any of these words or phrases confusing or difficult to understand?
Are you going to have a flutter on the Grand National on Saturday?
Do you think the Grand National is too dangerous? Should it be banned?
How would you use the Grand National in an EFL lesson?
Attributions
- Cropped version of the Aintree national circuit By Tbmurray [CC0], from Wikimedia Commons
- Finishing Post At Aintree – Horses head to the finishing post at Aintree – Grand National course. Image by Paul via Flickr [CC BY 2.0]
