Channel 4 has unveiled its plans for coverage of this weekend’s Crabbie’s Grand National at Aintree.
The channel, which covered the event for the first time last year, will broadcast 20 hours of coverage from Thursday until the main race on Saturday.
Clare Balding will again front Channel 4’s coverage
Clare Balding and Nick Luck will lead presenting duties alongside the Channel 4 Racing team, which includes Jim McGrath, Graham Cunningham, Alice Plunkett, Mick Fitzgerald and Rishi Persad.
Two extra on-course cameras will be in place, taking the total number to 47. This year will also see a return for the Camcat wire-cam system, which will run alongside the inside track from a height of 20-40 metres and two fences out.
There will also be Grand National specials of major Channel 4 shows, including Alan Carr’s Chatty Man on Friday night and a three-hour Weekend Brunch special on the morning of the big race.
Jamie Aitchison, Channel 4’s commissioning editor for sport, said: “Once again, I’m delighted with the programme support this great race has secured.
“Across the three days of the Festival we’ll be bringing people right to the heart of the event and the sport through insightful features, experts on course and the amazing camera technology we’ve employed. The overhead Cam-cat adds its amazing vista of the field and in the Scorpio Arm, normally used to film high-speed car chases, we have a unique view as it travels in front of the horses at a height of 18 feet.”
