Editing Grand National (section)

==The course==
The Grand National is run over the National Course at Aintree and consists of two laps of 16 fences, the first 14 of which are jumped twice. Horses completing the race cover a distance of {{convert|4|mi|514|yd|km}}, the longest of any National Hunt race in Britain. As part of a review of safety following the 2012 running of the event, from 2013 to 2015 the start was moved {{convert|90|yd|m}} forward away from the crowds and grandstands, reducing the race distance by {{convert|110|yd|m}} from the historical {{convert|4|mi|856|yd|km}}.<ref name="Distance reduced">{{cite web|title=Grand National Distance Reduced|url=http://www.horseracingresults.co.uk/news/33/grand-national-distance-reduced|access-date=8 April 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131106030958/http://www.horseracingresults.co.uk/news/33/grand-national-distance-reduced|archive-date=6 November 2013}}</ref>  The course has one of the longest run-ins from the final fence of any steeplechase, at {{convert|494|yd|m}}.
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[Image:The-Big-Raspers-At-Ai.jpg|right|frame|''The Big Raspers At Aintree'', 1927 painting of an incident at the Grand National]] -->
[[Image:Aintreenationalcropped.jpg|200px|thumb|right|A map of the National Course at Aintree]]
The Grand National was designed as a cross-country steeplechase when it was first officially run in 1839. The runners started at a lane on the edge of the racecourse and raced away from the course out over open countryside towards the [[Leeds and Liverpool Canal]]. The gates, hedges, and ditches that they met along the way were flagged to provide them with the obstacles to be jumped along the way with posts and rails erected at the two points where the runners jumped a brook. The runners returned towards the racecourse by running along the edge of the canal before re-entering the course at the opposite end. The runners then ran the length of the racecourse before embarking on a second circuit before finishing in front of the stands. The majority of the race, therefore, took place not on the actual Aintree Racecourse but instead in the adjoining countryside. That countryside was incorporated into the modern course but commentators still often refer to it as "the country".{{citation needed|date=May 2016}}

===Fences===
There are 16 fences on the National Course topped with spruce from the [[Lake District]]. The cores of 12 fences were rebuilt in 2012 and they are now made of a flexible plastic material which is more forgiving than the traditional wooden core fences. They are still topped with at least {{convert|14|in|cm}} of spruce for the horses to knock off. Some of the jumps carry names from the history of the race. All 16 are jumped on the first lap, but on the final lap, the runners bear to the right onto the run-in for home, avoiding The Chair and the Water Jump. The following is a summary of all 16 fences on the course:<ref name=gnguide>[http://www.grand-national-guide.co.uk/grand-national-info.php About The Grand National] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111009134634/http://www.grand-national-guide.co.uk/grand-national-info.php |date=9 October 2011 }}. Grand-national-guide.co.uk. Retrieved on 11 March 2011.</ref><ref name=fences>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20101024021027/http://www.aintree-grand-national.net/grand-national-fences.php Grand National Fences – Beechers Brook – The Chair]}}. Aintree-grand-national.net. Retrieved on 11 March 2011.</ref><ref name=grandnationalfencemap>[https://www.thejockeyclub.co.uk/aintree/events-tickets/grand-national/racing/course-map/ Aintree Course and Fences] The Jockey Club and The Grand National.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.aintree.co.uk/docLib/Grand-National/Grand_National_Map.pdf |title=Grand National Map |access-date=7 January 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080725014508/http://www.aintree.co.uk/docLib/Grand-National/Grand_National_Map.pdf |archive-date=25 July 2008 }}</ref>

;Fence 1 & 17
Height: {{convert|4|ft|6|in|m}}<br />
Often met at great speed, which can lead to several falls, the highest being 12 runners in 1951. The drop on the landing side was reduced after the [[2011 Grand National]]. It was bypassed in both 2019 and 2023 on the final lap, after equine casualties.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/horse-racing/47507315/page/2|title=Grand National Live: Tiger Roll wins.......Live reporting|last=Henson|first=Mike|date=6 April 2019|access-date=10 April 2019}}</ref> The fence was moved {{convert|60|yd}} nearer to the start from the 2024 race, to try to reduce the speed of the field early in the race.<ref name="Guard23">{{cite web |last1=Wood |first1=Greg |title=Grand National changes: 34 runners, first fence moved and no more parade |url=https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/oct/12/grand-national-racing-changes-34-runners-fences-aintree |work=The Guardian |access-date=11 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231012094438/https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/oct/12/grand-national-racing-changes-34-runners-fences-aintree |archive-date=12 October 2023 |date=12 October 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref>

;Fence 2 & 18
Height: {{convert|4|ft|7|in|m}}<br />
Before 1888 the first two fences were located approximately halfway between the first to second and second to third jumps. The second became known as The Fan, after a [[mare]] who refused the obstacle three years in succession. The name fell out of favour with the relocation of the fences.
;Fence 3 & 19 – open ditch
Height: {{convert|4|ft|10|in|m}}; fronted by a {{convert|6|ft|m|2}} ditch<br />
The first big test in the race as horses are still adapting to the obstacles.  In [[2022 Grand National|2022]], the race was shortened to 29 fences by bypassing this fence following a fatality.
;Fence 4 & 20
Height: {{convert|4|ft|10|in|m}}<br />
A testing obstacle that often leads to falls and unseated riders. In [[2011 Grand National|2011]] the 20th became the first fence in Grand National history to be bypassed on the final lap, following an equine fatality.
;Fence 5 & 21
Height: {{convert|5|ft|m|2}}<br />
A plain obstacle which precedes the most famous fence on the course. It was bypassed on the final lap for the first time in 2012 so that medics could treat a jockey who fell from his mount on the first lap and had broken a leg.
;Fence 6 & 22 – [[Becher's Brook]]
Height: {{convert|5|ft|m|2}}, with the landing side {{convert|6|in|cm}} to {{convert|10|in|cm}} lower than the takeoff side<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.aintree.co.uk/news/changes_to_the_grand_national_course_to_enhance_safety/ |title=changes_to_the_grand_national_course_to_enhance_safety |access-date=23 April 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120325051342/http://www.aintree.co.uk/news/changes_to_the_grand_national_course_to_enhance_safety/ |archive-date=25 March 2012 }}</ref><br />
The drop at this fence often catches runners by surprise. Becher's has always been a popular vantage point as it can present one of the most spectacular displays of jumping when the horse and rider meet the fence right. Jockeys must sit back in their saddles and use their body weight as ballast to counter the steep drop. It takes its name from [[Martin Becher|Captain Martin Becher]] who fell there in the first Grand National and took shelter in the small brook running along the landing side of the fence while the remainder of the field thundered over. It is said that Becher later reflected: "Water tastes disgusting without the benefits of whisky." It was bypassed in 2011 along with fence 20, after an equine casualty, and again in 2018 after a jockey was attended by doctors, both occurring on the final lap.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/apr/14/tiger-roll-holds-on-to-win-dramatic-grand-national-photo-finish-davy-russell-horse-racing|title=Tiger Roll holds on to win dramatic Grand National in photo-finish|first=Greg|last=Wood|date=14 April 2018|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=17 April 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180416220721/https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/apr/14/tiger-roll-holds-on-to-win-dramatic-grand-national-photo-finish-davy-russell-horse-racing|archive-date=16 April 2018}}</ref>
;Fence 7 & 23 – [[Foinavon]]
Height: {{convert|4|ft|6|in|m}}<br />
One of the smallest on the course, it was named in 1984 after the [[1967 Grand National|1967]] winner who avoided a mêlée at the fence to go on and win the race at outside odds of 100/1.
;Fence 8 & 24 – [[Canal Turn]]
Height: {{convert|5|ft|m|2|abbr=on}}<br />
Noted for its sharp 90-degree left turn immediately after landing. Before the [[World War I|First World War]] it was not uncommon for loose horses to continue straight ahead after the jump and end up in the [[Leeds and Liverpool Canal]] itself. There was once a ditch before the fence but this was filled in after a mêlée in the [[1928 Grand National|1928 race]]. It was bypassed for the first time in 2015 on the final lap as vets arrived to treat a horse who fell on the first lap.
;Fence 9 & 25 – [[Valentine's Brook]]
Height: {{convert|5|ft|m|2}} with a {{convert|5|ft|6|in|m}} brook<br />
The fence was originally known as the Second Brook but was renamed after a horse named Valentine was reputed to have jumped the fence hind legs first in [[1840 Grand National|1840]]. A grandstand was erected alongside the fence in the early part of the 20th century but fell into decline after the [[World War II|Second World War]] and was torn down in the 1970s.
;Fence 10 & 26
Height: {{convert|5|ft|m|2}}<br />
A plain obstacle that leads the runners alongside the canal towards two ditches.
;Fence 11 & 27 – open ditch
Height: {{convert|4|ft|10|in|m}}, with a {{convert|6|ft|m|2}} ditch on the takeoff side. This fence was 5 feet hight but was lowered by 2 inches from 2024.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/sport/horse-racing/67078770|title=Grand National field to be cut in safety move|accessdate=12 October 2023|work=BBC Sport}}</ref>
;Fence 12 & 28 – ditch
Height: {{convert|5|ft|m|2}}, with a {{convert|5|ft|6|in|m}} ditch on the landing side

The runners then cross the Melling Road near to the Anchor Bridge, a popular vantage point since the earliest days of the race. This also marks the point where the runners are said to be re-entering the "racecourse proper". In the early days of the race, it is thought there was an obstacle near this point known as the Table Jump, which may have resembled a bank similar to those still seen at [[Punchestown]] in Ireland. In the 1840s the Melling Road was also flanked by hedges and the runners had to jump into the road and then back out of it.

;Fence 13 & 29
Height: {{convert|4|ft|7|in|m}}<br />
A plain obstacle that comes at a point when the runners are usually in a good rhythm and thus rarely causes problems.
;Fence 14 & 30
Height: {{convert|4|ft|6|in|m}}<br />
The last fence on the final lap and which has often seen very tired horses fall. Despite some tired runners falling on the 30th and appearing injured, no horse deaths have occurred at the 30th fence to date.

On the first lap of the race, runners continue around the course to negotiate two fences which are only jumped once:

;Fence 15 – [[The Chair (Aintree Racecourse)|The Chair]]
Height: {{convert|5|ft|2|in|m}}, preceded by a 6&nbsp;ft (1.83 m) wide ditch<br />
This fence is the site of the accident that claimed the only human life in the National's history: in 1862, Joe Wynne fell here and died from his injuries, although a coroner's inquest revealed that the rider was in a gravely weakened condition through [[tuberculosis|consumption]].<ref>''Liverpool Daily Post'' 15 March 1862</ref> This brought about the ditch on the take-off side of the fence in an effort to slow the horses on approach. The fence was the location where a distance judge sat in the earliest days of the race. On the second circuit, he would record the finishing order from his position and declare any horse that had not passed him before the previous runner passed the finishing post as "distanced", meaning a non-finisher. The practice was done away with in the 1850s, but the monument where the chair stood is still there. The ground on the landing side is six inches higher than on the takeoff side, creating the opposite effect to the drop at Becher's. The fence was originally known as the Monument Jump, but "The Chair" came into more frequent use in the 1930s. Today it is one of the most popular jumps on the course for spectators.

;Fence 16 – Water Jump
Height: {{convert|2|ft|6|in|m}}<br />
Originally a stone wall in the very early Nationals. The Water Jump was one of the most popular jumps on the course, presenting a great jumping spectacle for those in the stands and was always a major feature in the [[newsreel]]s' coverage of the race. As the newsreels made way for television in the 1960s, so, in turn, did the Water Jump fall under the shadow of its neighbour, The Chair, in popularity as an obstacle.

On the final lap, after the 30th fence, the remaining runners bear right, avoiding The Chair and Water Jump, to head onto a "run-in" to the finishing post. The run-in is not perfectly straight: an "elbow" requires jockeys to make a slight right before finding themselves truly on the home straight. It is on this run-in—one of the longest in the United Kingdom at {{convert|494|yd|m}}—that many potential winners have had victory snatched away, such as [[Devon Loch]] in [[1956 Grand National|1956]], [[Crisp (horse)|Crisp]] in [[1973 Grand National|1973]], [[What's Up Boys]] in [[2002 Grand National|2002]] and Sunnyhillboy in [[2012 Grand National|2012]].