Guide to the Grand National

IT is a tradition as deeply ingrained in the British national psyche as apologising, rooting for the underdog and hassling celebrities. Every year, come early April, millions in Britain, Ireland and across the globe gather round the television to watch one of the most thrilling spectacles in sport: the Grand National at Aintree.

At four and a half miles the Grand National is a marathon horse race in the extreme, severely testing the partnership between jockey and horse and capable of sending both hurtling to the ground at any one of its 30 fences.

For many the race is a yearly treat remembered from earliest childhood, and its rich history is full of familiar names such as Red Rum, Devon Loch and Foinavon.

It is easy to see how the race became such a unique fixture in the sporting calendar. Witnessing the pell-mell cavalry charge of 40 thoroughbreds bearing down on the first fence, strung across the track, hurtling towards five foot of hedge at close to 40mph, is a unique and exhilarating experience.

And then there is the unavoidable fact that the race is dangerous - horses and jockeys are routinely injured in the course of the race and equine fatalities are sometimes a sad reality, a fact that has attracted the ire of some animal welfare campaigners.

Considerable efforts have been made, with positive results, to minimise the risk to both horse and rider in recent years, but there remains something genuinely dangerous about the race, which in a predominantly cautious world can be an intoxicating pleasure.

Consider it a nod to the noble tradition of putting one's life and limb at risk in pursuit of glory. Although, with a prize fund of almost £1 million, the glory is not entirely abstract.

But despite its vast endowment, the Grand National is not typically won by immaculate thoroughbreds or champion jockeys, as the Cheltenham showpieces regularly are.

The National is won by the canny, the tough, and, more often than not, the lucky. Tony McCoy, the most successful jumps jockey ever, with over 3,000 career victories, shed tears of joy and relief when he finally won the race at his 15th attempt on Don't Push It in 2010.

There is some debate about the exact origin of the Grand National. What would become the race was first run in 1836 and won by The Duke, but whether the first three races (up to 1839) were actually run at Aintree has long been disputed, and those three are normally disregarded in the history books.

The 1839 race, regarded by many as the 'first' Grand National, was won by Lottery - which is exactly what many long-suffering race fans claim the spectacular is.