'It'll take some getting on Saturday' - more rain at Aintree threatens to make Grand National a proper stamina test

Further showers are possible overnight at Aintree, where the ground remained officially a mixture of soft and heavy after racing on the first day of the Randox Grand National meeting.

The Randox Foxhunters'-winning jockey Derek O'Connor said: "It'll take some getting on Saturday."

A smattering of rain fell as the runners were parading for the finale and clerk of the course Sulekha Varma said: "There is the chance of showers over the three days but we're leaving the ground as it is – soft, heavy in places; heavy, soft in places on the National course – and will see how it is in the morning."

Varma reported receiving no complaints about conditions from jockeys and the ground was not as testing as first feared, according to those who rode on Thursday.

After riding in the opening race Harry Cobden described the ground as "pretty soft", while Harry Skelton called it "lovely jumping ground" and Gavin Sheehan said it was "soft but dead as it's drying out". 

After winning the only race of the day on the National course on Its On The Line, O'Connor said: "It's very dead. My lad is a sweet-mover but he was finding it tough, but eventually his class prevailed. It'll take some getting on Saturday."

Sean O'Connor, second on Bennys King, said: "It's getting a bit tacky."

Time analysis: plenty of stamina needed in National 

Analysing the time of the first race, Racing Post raceday editor Ron Wood said: "The pace was not overly taxing in the opener but the time was not bad either. The winner was home from the third-last in about 47 seconds  for a final time of 5min 13.47sec. That suggests soft ground and not much worse on the Mildmay Chase course.

"It was about two and a half seconds faster overall than the same race in 2018, when conditions were officially given as good to soft but changed to soft during the afternoon."

After the Foxhunters' Chase on the National course, Wood said: "It was officially the slowest running of the race since 2001, the year of Red Marauder's Grand National when the ground was barely raceable. Even so, conditions were nothing like as desperate this time around.

Its On The Line: on his way to victory in the slowest running of the Foxhunters' since 2001Credit: Grossick Racing (racingpost.com/photos)

"The pace wasn't too demanding and the time was only a few seconds slower than the 2018 running, which was staged on soft. This year's race was more than 30 seconds above standard, and it's hard to argue with the official description of heavy, soft in places.

"Conditions seemed to be getting a bit more gluey on the Mildmay course as the day went on, so the odd shower might even make the ground feel a little less like hard work. 

"It's impossible to know for sure what the weather will do, but if they don't get too much more rain we might be looking at a soft-ground National. Plenty of stamina will be needed, but it might not be the bog many were expecting."
Ron Wood

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