WELCOMES YOU

Hello and welcome to the Opening Day of the Randox Grand National Festival 2023 and the first of three days of incredible racing and entertainment!

We are delighted to see you all here at Aintree Racecourse, where we expect to see some of the very best Jumps horses from across Great Britain and Ireland out on the turf Among them is the mighty Constitution Hill, who will bid to further cement his name in the history books when stepping up in distance in the William Hill Aintree Hurdle at 3.30pm. Trained by Nicky Henderson, Constitution Hill is unbeaten in his racing career under rules and comes straight to Aintree having dominated in the Unibet Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham Racecourse just last month.

The quality of racing at this year's Grand National Festival, especially today, really is some of the best we've ever seen with superstar names such as Shishkin, Ahoy Senor, A Plus Tard and Conflated all primed and ready for a trip to Merseyside

Our thanks as ever go to the sponsors of this meeting. Firstly, to our event partner Randox, who have supported the Grand National Festival since 2017 Jewson, Racehorse Lotto, William Hill, Close Brothers and Goffs are also all kindly sponsoring races on today's card. We wish them all a wonderful day with us.

We are also very pleased that The Aintree Bowl Steeplechase, which is set to be one of the most exciting races of the week, is this year being run under the name of Alder Hey Children's Hospital. This year marks 21 years since we first started working with Alder Hey, who are our official charity partners, so it feels very appropriate to have the race run in their name

Before racing gets underway this afternoon, guests will have the chance to see Liverpool dance group Movema in collaboration with Soprano Laura Wright for an unmissable performance to the rear of the Queen Mother Stand, close to McCoys Head on over for 1.10pm to make the most of it.

After racing at 5.30pm, the Goffs Horse Sale will take place in the Parade Ring. If you've never seen a sale in the flesh before, this is a great opportunity to soak up the atmosphere as some of the stars of tomorrow are paraded and sold to their new homes.

We'd like to sign-off by thanking you all for joining us over these three days which are undoubtedly the highlight of our year The impact the event has on the local community is incredible, with a recent report conducted by Liverpool John Moores University showing that in 2022, the event was worth over £60million to Liverpool and the surrounding area.

For now, we wish you all a wonderful day with us.

Nicholas Wrigley Dickon White Chairman, Aintree Racecourse North West Regional Director

T: 0344 579 3001

E: aintree@thejockeyclub.co.uk

W: thejockeyclub co.uk/aintree