EXCLUSIVE: The Jockey Club invited the Daily Star along to see how Aintree is being prepped for this week’s Grand National festival – culminating in the big race itself on Saturday
Daily Star’s Jerry Lawton visits Aintree ahead of the Grand National
This year’s Grand National is set to be the safest ever – thanks to a racing robot.
The Jockey Club – which stages the showpiece watched by a worldwide audience of tens of millions in 170 different countries – has deployed artificial intelligence to help make the sport safer for horses and riders.
The AI tool – dubbed `clip-bot’ – uses algorithms to process data from thousands of horse races run across the country.
Every fence leap is registered to produce an `obstacle risk analysis’.
Data recorded from 443,000 `jumping efforts’ across The Jockey Club’s 11 fence-and-hurdle UK racecourses identified how fences could be made safer.
But while the bot may be great at identifying improvements it does not like to get its hands dirty actually building racecourses.
It is still good old-fashioned humans who are left to do the dirty work.
The Jockey Club invited the Daily Star along to see how Aintree is being prepped for this week’s Grand National festival – culminating in the big race itself on Saturday.
The most important feature of the four-and-a-quarter mile steeplechase is its 30 fences many of which have themselves become household names since the race’s first running in 1839.
Becher’s Brook, Canal Turn and the biggest of all The Chair – at a towering 5ft 2in – have struck fear into hearts of young jockeys and left racing fans in awe of their favourite thoroughbreds’ ability to navigate them.
As I stood in the ditch beneath The Chair, newly-dressed in immaculate spruce, the thought of clambering over with some step ladders and scaffolding filled me with trepidation – let alone attempting to fly over it on horseback.
But Stephen Fyles, in charge of Aintree’s grounds team, said even The Chair’s neigh is worse than its bite.
He said though the National fences look as challenging as ever their guts have been changed completely to make them softer and safer to jump.
Former wooden cores have been replaced by a combination of plastic, birch and spruce designed to `give’ with a horse as it flicks over them.
None fell in last year’s Grand National for the first time ever.
That gave Stephen, 41, who has worked at Aintree since 2004 but was in charge for the first time last year, an enormous sense of pride.
“It’s an honour to be a part of making something so special,” he said.
“I think we’ve got one of the gems in the sporting calendar. To feel that history.
“It’s an honour to know what you can produce with the world watching. At the end of the day horse welfare is our priority. We want to see everything come back.’’
While some may tune in to see thrills and spills that is not the focus of Stephen’s 150 staff who are determined to produce a safe race with a thrilling finish involving as many horses as possible.
“I know we copped a little flak last year for a lot of finishers but there was something satisfying about seeing everything come round,’’ he said.
“And it was a good finish at the end of the day. Then we can celebrate.’’
Though the Grand National lasts just nine minutes fence-building work started two months ago with staff ferrying 90 truck-loads of spruce – recycled logging waste – to Aintree from the Lake District.
Each fence contains around 3ft of it plus 2ft of birch branches weaved in by hand.
“It’s quite an art form when you see a fence dressed,’’ Stephen said.
“The old cores were quite robust. There wasn’t a lot of give in them. If anything got deep into a fence it couldn’t make it over.
“Now it’s got `give’ in it so from a safety factor if a horse hits a fence hard spruce is going to follow. There’s nothing sharp that can really cause an injury.’’
He said the height of the fences was designed to slow the horses down for `maximum safety’ as the faster they jump the more likely they could be hurt landing.
And watering was key to safe fence building.
“You want a stable take off but a softer landing. What we’ll generally do is we will water the landing side of each fence just to make it a little bit easier,’’ he said.
Workers use a 16-pronged mechanical aerator to soften the landing as much as possible.
Aintree was built on farming land with white sand beneath and Stephen said years of irrigation improvements allow his team to work towards producing the safest good-to-soft racing ground.
But he prays `the Gods’ do their bit – by bringing rain in the build-up to the big race.
“It it rains it’s not such a problem. Last year we were lucky because we didn’t end up watering the course,’’ he said.
“The Gods gave us that.
“It’s harder for us when it’s drier.
“If we’re having to manipulate the ground to keep the ground safe then that’s where the challenge increases.
“Because if we’re watering we can be here from 3am.
“Over the three days if we’re having to do that after racing every night it can be quite intense.
“So Saturday night can be a little bit of a `just pass out’.’’
The forecast for this week is rain-free – suggesting Stephen’s team may face a tougher task to prepare turf.
But his unsung National heroes have been working round-the-clock to produce the best ground for the `safest race’.
Aintree’s clerk of the course Jon Pullin, The Jockey Club’s head of racing, told the Daily Star all aspects of the race were reviewed after each running with the `welfare of everyone involved our No1 priority’.
“We also work hard to preserve the unique characteristics which make the Grand National the iconic race it is,’’ he said.
Each fence has been modified from timber frame to `forgiving plastic’, the start moved away from the grandstand so horses are not stressed, £400,000 invested in watering to ensure the safest ground and a state-of-the-art cooling and washdown area provided for thoroughbreds post-race.
Analysis of the racing robot’s data led to cutting the maximum number of runners to 34, moving the first fence 60 yards closer to a new standing start to reduce horses’ approach speed and adding rubber toe boards to fences for extra protection.
According to jockeys the National is the safest it has ever been.
“It’s not difficult for jockeys going round the National course now,’’ one leading rider told the Daily Star.
“It’s fixed fences with spruce on top – not that difficult.
“You can actually jump lower at the National than many other regular tracks.’’