Paris (AFP) - The Grand National, run at Aintree on Saturday, in facts and figures:
500 million
-- the estimated worldwide audience watching in cafes, pubs, bookies, on television, laptops and smartphones in 140 countries
£300 million ($376 million)
-- the amount bookmakers estimate will be wagered on the 1515 GMT from Aintree on Saturday
£1 million
-- the total prize money purse, with over half, £561,300, going to the winner's connections down to £1,000 for the 10th-placed finisher.
250,000
-- pints poured over the three-day festival, with racegoers consuming 75,000 cups of tea and coffee
6900
-- 6900 metres or four miles, two and a half furlongs -- the gruelling distance of the Aintree spectacular
175
-- Saturday's National is the 175th edition of a race first run in 1839 and staged throughout World War I (at the now defunct Gatwick Racecourse).It was suspended during WWII from 1941-45, voided in 1993 after the infamous false start fiasco, and cancelled due to Covid in 2020.In 1997 a bomb threat from the Irish Republican Army forced it to be postponed two days until the Monday.
107
-- fractures sustained by the 18th Duke of Albuquerque (full name: Beltran Alfonso Osorio y Diez de Rivera) -- the Spanish peer and amateur jockey, in his seven National rides between 1952 and 1974.His interest in the world's greatest steeplechase was sparked when his father gave him a newsreel clip of the 1926 race.
100
-- 100-1, the longest odds for a National winner with Mon Mome in 2009 the last of five starting at that price
92
-- the age of the oldest National-winning owner, Jim Joel (Maori Venture 1987)
66
- the number of runners who went to post in 1929, a record
48
-- the age of the oldest winning rider - amateur Dick Saunders (Grittar 1982)
30
-- there are 16 fences on the Grand National course, with 14 jumped twice, including Becher's Brook, named after Captain Martin Becher who landed in the ditch on Conrad in the first National in 1839, and The Chair, a daunting obstacle and at 5ft 2in high the highest of them all
23
-- a record 23 runners made it across the finish line in 1984
17
-- the age of the youngest winning rider - Bruce Hobbs, in 1938 on Battleship
14 minutes 53 seconds
- the slowest winning time recorded by Lottery, winner of the first National in 1839, almost six minutes slower than the fastest time of 8min 47.8sec recorded by Mr Frisk in 1990.
10
-- Devon Loch was clear by 10 lengths before doing the splits 50 yards from the line leaving Dick Francis on the turf and owner the Queen Mother to observe with masterful understatement "well that's racing" as E.S.B took the Aintree honours in 1956
3
-- Red Rum wrote his name into National folklore as the only horse to win the race three times -- in 1973, 74, 77. Bred as a sprinter and famously trained on the beach at Southport by the used car showroom of his trainer, Ginger McCain.Red Rum, who also finished runner-up twice, is buried by the winning post.
11-4
- Poethlyn, winner in 1919 in the race known as the Victory National after WWI, started at 11-4, the shortest priced winner in the race's history.
2
-- the record lowest number of finishers in 1928
1
-- Rachael Blackmore became the first and so far only woman jockey to win the race on Minella Times in 2021
0
-- Nicky Henderson has 72 Cheltenham Festival winners to his name and is a six time champion trainer, but he has still to crack the National.Of his 42 attempts he has saddled the second twice, with his first runner Zongalero in 1979, and The Tsarevich in 1987.The 72-year-old is pinning his 2023 hopes on Mister Coffey, who has yet to win over fences.
