British English Holidays Grand National
hi everyone I’m Gina the grand national
is one of the highlights of the sporting
calendar in the UK is an annual
steeplechase and the most prestigious
horse race in the country in this lesson
you’re going to learn about why the
Grand National is so important the Grand
National is held every year but what was
special and unique about the race in
1993 will show you the answer at the end
of this video the Grand National is a
horse race held annually at Aintree
racecourse
in Liverpool it has been running since
1839 the course is four miles long and
has 30 fences making it one of the
toughest horse races in the world and
far tougher the more conventional horses
some of the fencers such as Beecher’s
Brook are almost as famous as the race
itself the Grand National is the one day
when even those that don’t gamble may
place a bet it is popular amongst the
general public and it’s a busiest day of
the year for bookies the Grand National
is the most valuable horse race in
Europe and in 2013 it had a prize fund
of just under a million pounds it is
watched by an estimated 600 million
people across 140 countries the race is
however not without controversy due to
the harsh demands of the course and the
fencers the horse mortality rate for the
Grand National is far higher than for
other races every year there are many
protests about the alleged cruelty of
the race and the race organisers have
responded to the criticism by modifying
fences and moving the start line
some of the winners of the race have
become famous in their own right in the
1970s a horse called Red Rum won the
race three times and his death in 1990
made the front page of the newspapers
and now I’ll give you the answer to the
earlier quiz the Grand National is held
every year but what was special and
unique about race in 1993 it was unique
because it was the only time that the
race has been declared null and void the
starting tape became tangled around the
jockeys on two separate occasions and a
false start was declared some jockeys
that were able to start the race thought
the officials trying to stop them were
protesters and so carried on the race
was considered void and bets refunded
how was this lesson did you learn
something interesting do you know of any
other prestigious horse races
leave us a comment at English past
101.com
and we’ll see you in the next lesson
you