Tracks from Plumpton to Ffos Las and at several points in between will be hoping to see Bank Holiday racegoers pouring through the turnstiles on Monday, but the undoubted highlight of the Easter weekend is the Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse – the most valuable race of the jumps season in the country that is, for the moment at least, the dominant force in National Hunt racing.
It is unusual for a big race to be attached to a moveable feast, with a slot in the calendar that could be anywhere from the last week of March to late April. Some years, it is staged shortly after the Cheltenham Festival; in others, a week or more after the original Grand National at Aintree.
