Aintree to inspect Grand National course ahead of Grand Sefton

Aintree will hold an inspection at 9am on Friday on the Grand National course to see if Saturday’s BoyleSports Grand Sefton Handicap Chase can take place.

While the races on the Mildmay and hurdle course are unaffected, parts of the Grand National course are currently waterlogged.

The £100,000 race is the first time this season the iconic course is scheduled to be in use.

Ground staff are to continue their remedial work throughout Thursday but another band of heavy rain is due on Thursday evening.

Clerk of the course Sulekha Varma said: “We are soft, heavy in places, on the Mildmay, chase and hurdle courses.

“We’re currently heavy, soft in places, on the Grand National course, with a couple of areas of concern that we are working on through today.

“We hope the remedial work will be done by the end of the day and that the course should be fit for racing, but the fly in the ointment for us is that we potentially have heavy rain tonight.

“Depending on which forecast you look at, it’s anything from 5mm to 10mm or more, so we’re just going to have to see what state we’re in in the morning as to whether we can go ahead with the Grand Sefton, but the rest of the races are not affected.”

The fixture at Fontwell on Friday has already been abandoned.