Grand National Places
The most popular things to do in Grand Canyon National Park with kids according to Tripadvisor travelers are: Grand Canyon South Rim; Grand Canyon National Park; Rim Trail; Grand Canyon North Rim; All-Star Grand Canyon Tours; See all kid friendly things to do in Grand Canyon National Park on Tripadvisor. The Grand National course has much larger fences than normal. The Chair, Valentine’s Brook, Foinavon, Becher’s Brook and the Canal Turn are just some of the famous fences that runners and rider need to navigate in the race. After the cancellation of the Grand National 2020, Grand National 2021 Ante post markets are beginning to open and we’re seeing some horses with odds on running in the next Grand National. Below you’ll find a list of Grand National Runners leading up to Aintree 2021 as soon as we hear about them. RTJ GOLF TRAIL AT GRAND NATIONAL. Grand National, by all reports, was the single greatest site for a golf complex Robert Trent Jones, Sr. Had ever seen.Built on 600-acre Lake Saugahatchee, 32 of the 54 holes drape along its filigreed shores. Both the Links course and the Lake course were in the top 10 of Golf Digest's list of 'America's Top 50 Affordable Courses' and all three courses at Grand. The 2017 Grand National saw for the first time ever a number of online bookmakers going 6 places each way. Both BetVictor (1/4 odds) and Paddy Power (1/5 odds) offered standout Grand National 6 places each way offers, with bet365 for the first time also offering an option of 5 (standard default) and 6 places each way (both full 1/4 odds) markets.
Everyone has a chance of picking the winner of the Grand National and almost half of those that bet on the race will choose their horse by its name. If you can’t decide which horse you want to back, use the tools on our Grand National Tips page such as the Random Grand National Winner Generator or simply sit back and let the Experts at Timeform point you in the right direction with their insight on the big race.
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New Customer Offer. Place a £5 single racing bet, min odds 1/5 (1.2) and get £20 in free bets. You will also get an additional £5 in free bets for each day of the Cheltenham festival (£40 in total). Only deposits made using cards or Apple Pay will qualify for this promotion. Free bets will be awarded after the qualifying bet has been settled and are valid for 30 days. T&Cs apply. Paddy's Rewards Club: Get a £10 free bet when you place 5x bets of £10+. T&Cs apply.
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Free tips for the 2021 Grand National which will take place at Aintree Racecourse, Liverpool, on Saturday 10th April 2021. Grand National Tips from the stable of Horse Racing tipsters on Timeform.
Our Random Grand National Winner Generator is a Predictor tool that helps people make up their mind which horse to back, or you can read Grand National tips and predictions for the live ITV Races Tips and both our Antepost Tips for the Grand National as well as our free Daily Horse Racing Tips for all three days of Aintree’s Grand National Festival from the stable of horse racing tipsters and pundits at Timeform.
This is the home for all the best Grand National Tips for an enjoyable afternoon either at the races or watching on TV. Everyone has a chance of betting on the winner of the Grand National 2021 and almost half of those who bet on the Grand National will choose their horse by its name.
Still not sure which horse is going to win the Grand National? Rather than scouring the Newspaper Tips or looking for Insider Tips, head over to our Grand National Runners page for the verdict on every possible Grand National runner!
Make sure you visit our Free Bets page to take advantage of the best sign-up offers from the top bookies or download the Timeform Horse Racing App and place your bets.
Ante Post Grand National Tips
Not long after the years Grand National has run, the markets will be live for next year’s renewal. The great thing about ante post betting is some of the fantastic prices you can get for a horse that is sure to run at a shorter price if it runs in the Grand National. Not just that but Grand National week includes plenty of great racing ahead of the big race itself. We’ll be scouring the markets week after week as the racing develops, looking for top ante post tips ahead of the Grand National.Daily Grand National Festival Tips
Once the Grand National Festival arrives, we’ll have tips on a daily basis, with selections in each race – with our expert tipsters making the selections. If you’re looking for horse racing tips for more than just the Grand National, then head over to our main site for daily tips in every race in the UK and Ireland.Grand National Video Tips
Keep an eye out on our Facebook page or Youtube channel the night before the next day’s racing, as we’ll be producing tipping videos for each days racing. We’ll be grabbing the top Timeform tipsters to give us their best bets for the next day’s racing – including their NAP, and an each way fancy.Expert Grand National Tips and Tipsters
Timeform are steeped in history – having been founded in 1948 – we have led the way in independent handicapping since. Our ratings system is used as a barometer for the top horses in the sport, and is made to help you pinpoint winners. Our expert handicappers and tipsters watch the racing closely so they can analyse a horse’s performance, and predict how it may run next time. They have been living and breathing every key race in the run up to the Grand National, and have key insight.Head to our Betting page to learn more about placing a bet on the Grand National
Grand National 2021 Free Bets
Exclusive free bets and offers for the 2021 Grand National at Aintree
Horse racing betting offers
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Available every Saturday until the Festival. Min £20 in Exchange bets (min odds 1.5 applies to back bets). Max £10 free bet per qualifying day, awarded 15/03, valid on Exchange markets. Betfair Rewards 'Basic' customers excluded. T&Cs apply. RF20: New customers only, max £20 cash refund. Bet must be placed in first 7 days of account opening. Payment restrictions apply. T&Cs apply.
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Horse racing free bet offers
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New Customer Offer. Place a £5 single racing bet, min odds 1/5 (1.2) and get £20 in free bets. You will also get an additional £5 in free bets for each day of the Cheltenham festival (£40 in total). Only deposits made using cards or Apple Pay will qualify for this promotion. Free bets will be awarded after the qualifying bet has been settled and are valid for 30 days. T&Cs apply. Paddy's Rewards Club: Get a £10 free bet when you place 5x bets of £10+. T&Cs apply.
New Customer Offer. Place a £5 single racing bet, min odds 1/5 (1.2) and get £20 in free bets. You will also get an additional £5 in free bets for each day of the Cheltenham festival (£40 in total). Only deposits made using cards or Apple Pay will qualify for this promotion. Free bets will be awarded after the qualifying bet has been settled and are valid for 30 days. T&Cs apply. Paddy's Rewards Club: Get a £10 free bet when you place 5x bets of £10+. T&Cs apply.
Read Paddy Power Review →Bet £10, get £40 in free bets: £20 now + £20 for Cheltenham week
Min stake £10, min odds 2.0 (Evs). Only deposits made using Cards or ApplePay will qualify. Free bets valid for 30 days, x1 £20 free bet awarded at bet settlement, x1 £20 awarded at 10am Mon 15th March. T&Cs apply.
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New UK & NI customers only. 18+. Sign up using promo code ‘SPORTS60’. Deposit & place first sports bet at a minimum of £10 in one bet transaction at evens (2.0) +. £30 paid in free bets within 48 hours of bet settlement, expires 7-days after issue. E-Wallet & Prepaid Card restrictions apply. Your first bet must be settled within 60 days of bet placement. SMS validation may be required. Game restrictions apply. Maximum 30 Free Spins on selected games. Free Spins expire after 7 days. Full T&Cs apply.
New UK & NI customers only. 18+. Sign up using promo code ‘SPORTS60’. Deposit & place first sports bet at a minimum of £10 in one bet transaction at evens (2.0) +. £30 paid in free bets within 48 hours of bet settlement, expires 7-days after issue. E-Wallet & Prepaid Card restrictions apply. Your first bet must be settled within 60 days of bet placement. SMS validation may be required. Game restrictions apply. Maximum 30 Free Spins on selected games. Free Spins expire after 7 days. Full T&Cs apply.
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From the moment that the Jockey Club confirmed that the Grand National would not be taking place as normal this year because of the Coronavirus pandemic, horse racing lovers the world over have been crying out for some sort of replacement. Now it looks as though they’ve been given one, in the form of the virtual Grand National that ITV will be broadcasting instead.
The virtual Grand National is the brainchild of Inspired Entertainment, who use computer algorithms and Random Number Generators to predict the outcome of the National that can be watched thanks to development in Computer Generated Imagery. Obviously it’s not the real thing, but might it be able to fill the whole left by the cancellation of the actual race?
Grand National Places 2017
Why The Grand National Was Cancelled
Grand National Places Today
If you aren’t quite sure why the Grand National was cancelled by the Jockey Club in March then you’ve probably been living under a rock. That might not be a bad thing, in fairness, and you might want to think about crawling back under it and waiting for this whole thing to blow over. The outbreak of the Coronavirus from the city of Wuhan in China is the reason, shutting down sport globally.
The new strain of Coronavirus, called Covid-19, spread out of the Hubei province at the end of 2019 and began to move around the world. Because of the nature of the disease there is no cure for it at present, nor is there a vaccine against it. That led to the World Health Organisation declaring it to be a pandemic, with sports being cancelled in most places around the globe.
That is because governments have been straining to find a way to curb the Coronavirus’ impact, given that it is killing tens of thousands of people and hospitals are being overwhelmed. One of the chief ways of stopping its spread is by limiting contact between people, which was the thinking behind the government’s decision to cancel any major gatherings such as sports events.
The Jockey Club was loath to cancel the event known as the ‘World’s Greatest Steeplechase’ and watched by more than 500 million people around the globe. Yet when the British government said that people were to ‘avoid non-essential contact and unnecessary travel’, it was clear that the race would struggle to go ahead as normal.
The initial plan was for British racing to be moved behind closed doors, with the race’s importance to the sport well understood by the Jockey Club. Even that was acknowledged as not being a viable option, however, so the decision was taken to cancel it altogether. Sandy Dudgeon of the organisation said, “very sadly these are exceptional times and this is the responsible thing to do”.
What Is The Virtual Grand National?
The cancellation of the Grand National was a sad moment for racing. The race took place in both 1997 when the Irish Republican Army issued a bomb threat to Aintree Racecourse, albeit two days late, and in 2001 when many meetings were cancelled because of the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. Indeed, this is the first time there’ll be no race since the Second World War.
ITV Racing was due to broadcast the event, but with no race taking place it looked as though it wasn’t going to have anything to put on its schedule for the 4th of April. Thankfully technology has come to the rescue of both the broadcaster and the race-loving public. The virtual Grand National is the creation of Inspired Entertainment and was due to be shown anyway.
Since 2017 the virtual Grand National has been shown in advance of the main event, giving watching punters some ideas about which horse they should bet on in the big race. In 2017, for example, it predicted that Cause Of Causes would win the race only for One For Arthur to do so and the Gordon Elliott trained horse to come second.
The virtual Grand National is a CGI depiction of what a computer algorithm thinks will happen in the race itself. It differs from the virtual Grand National events that you can bet on with certain bookmakers, which take place every 3 minutes or so and simply use a CGI Aintree Racecourse as the backdrop for a race involving fake horses that is decided by a Random Number Generator.
How It Works
The virtual Grand National that I’m talking about here is much more complex than that. In years gone by Inspired Entertainment have looked in detail at the racing style and form of the horses that have been declared for the race, inputting that information into computer algorithms along with other factors such as the Going to see how the race could potentially transpire.
A horse’s previous form, whether it favours a particular type of weather and how it has done in the race in the past are all inputted into an algorithm, which is then fed into a Random Number Generator. The RNG is able to use the information from the algorithm in order to weigh certain horses more favourably than others, therefore giving a reasonably accurate prediction.
Horses are still able to refuse a fence, unseat their rider or even fall at a fence. The only major difference is that they can’t get injured in the CGI version of the race, which pleases animal rights groups that don’t like the real life event. Punters up and down the country who were disappointed about the race’s cancellation will be interested to see how the virtual version plays out.
Where Can You Watch It?
The virtual Grand National will be broadcast on ITV. It will be shown on the home of televised racing in the United Kingdom some time between 5pm and 5.30pm on the 4th of April, which is when the programme will be broadcast. It is quite literally being shown instead of the proper race, which was also down to be run on the 4th of April before its cancellation.
As well as the virtual Grand National that will use the horses that were most likely to have taken part in the race, ITV will also be showing a very special event: the Race Of Champions. This will be a Computer Generated Image version of the Grand National featuring some of the race’s most iconic horses. The likes of Foinavon and Red Rum will go up against Tiger Roll.
Betting On The Virtual Grand National
At the time of writing, only a few bookmakers are offering odds on the outcome of the virtual Grand National but that will increase closer to the race. The company that runs the race, Inspired, also already provide virutal horse race feeds and odds to UK bookies and so this is something they know very well.
Normal virtual races are more like games than sports as there is a set margin and return to player percentage that the bookie knows in advance. The difference here is the bookies themselves are not running the races and so in many ways this will be more like a real horse race from an odds perspective as the prices will vary depending on how much is bet on a runner, creating a market where runners can be both short and long compared to their actual chances of winning.
Remember bookmakers only care about balancing books and making profits, they don’t really care who wins the race. In this case they won’t be able to balance the book on Tiger Roll and the big favourites, so if one of those wins it could cost them, just as it would do in the real race.
The race itself cannot be fixed, it is run using a random number generator and algorithms that are regulated and tested independently. In many ways it is far more immune to rigging than a real world race. Inspired, the bookies and the punters have no idea of the result until the race is run.
One thing we do know is that the sheer volume of bets usually placed on the National won’t be there this time around, nor will the same number of markets be available. That doesn’t mean that it won’t be worth a flutter, though.
Will It Be A Worthy Replacement?
The reality of the world right now is that people are feeling starved of live sport. Everything from Premier League football through to international cricket tests has been cancelled, with this summer’s European Championship being delayed until 2021. We know that there is a big market for people wanting to watch any kind of sport, even if it’s CGI in nature.
ITV can expect a reasonably big audience for Saturday, then. After all, the vast majority of people are unable to go out and the Grand National is the horse race that people who don’t like horse racing will watch. The combination of it being the World’s Greatest Steeplechase and the fact that people will be intrigued to see how a virtual race would play out will see many people watching.
The key question is about whether those people watching will be happy with what they encounter. Inspired Entertainment use the latest in Computer Generated Images to bring the horses and jockeys to life, but it obviously still lacks the nitty gritty of real life horse racing. You won’t see the mud fly off a horse’s hooves, for example, or their muscles strain as they lift off for a jump.
That being said, it will please animal rights groups that have a strong dislike of the real race because of the number of horses that are injured or die during its running. The problem is that animal rights groups aren’t the target audience for live racing, so the opinion of true race lovers will be what dictates the future of virtual Grand Nationals.
On that front we do have previous years that we can look back on, judging how the watching public reacted to the virtual races shown. When the 2019 virtual Grand National was shown on ITV, as an example, one viewer complained that they were being shown a simulation instead of the ‘actual race live right now’.
It Could Be The Future
Whilst Rob McLoughlin, the Executive Producer of the virtual race, believes that his company has been ‘brave’ to attempt to preview ‘the most unpredictable race of all’ and some people have been annoyed in the past about ITV’s decision to show a virtual version of the main event, some people believe that it’s not only fascinating but could also be the future of racing.
In the wake of the 2018 virtual Grand National, Robin Gibson wrote a piece for the Racing Post. In it he pointed out that there were dozens of positive messages on social media about the CGI event. He also drew attention to the fact that a YouGuv poll put the race’s popularity at more than Donald Trump but less than Jeremy Clarkson, so more than a few people wouldn’t mind a virtual version of the real thing.
This year will be the biggest test of the virtual Grand National’s popularity. Whereas in years gone by people were quick to complain because it was being shown instead of actual racing that was taking place at the time, 2020 will be the year that there is no real racing to show and the virtual alternative might just be accepted as a solid option.
With thousands of people up and down the country likely to still be doing sweepstakes with their friends and family, it will give those with only a passing interest in the sport a sense of what virtual racing could offer in the future. If it comes out of the experience with more positive reviews than negative ones then it might well be taken more seriously by the powers that be. Especially given the Covid-19 pandemic shows no sign of slowing down.