TV Today

ITV Racing: Grand National Festival 2024 starts today at 2pm on ITV1 and ITVX.

Presented by Ed Chamberlin, ITV Racing will broadcast five races a day of top class racing across the three-day Festival, with an extended show on Grand National Day.

ITV’s BAFTA-winning team include pundits and Grand-National winning jockeys, Sir Anthony McCoy, Ruby Walsh and Mick Fitzgerald.

Joining them covering all the action around the whole course will be Rishi Persad, Alice Plunkett, Adele Mulrennan and Matt Chapman. Brian Gleeson will be in the betting ring with Luke Harvey down at the starts. Oli Bell will interact with viewers at home and look at stats in the ‘social stable’ and the three big race commentators will be Richard Hoiles, Mark Johnson and Stewart Machin. On Saturday, Ruby Walsh will also be alongside Oli Bell for a fence-by-fence review analysing how the action unfolded and how your horse got on.

The Opening Show will be on ITV4 each day and ITV1 on Saturday. Oli Bell will host a preview all the big races and take in the morning action around the course. He will have guests with him each day and a big race line up on Saturday including Sir Anthony McCoy and Ruby Walsh.

Across the week, the award-winning production and technical team will use state-of-the-art equipment with approximately 50 cameras around the course including a tracker following the horses, a wire cam along the home straight and a drone.

The ITV7 team will also run a Grand National Sweepstake competition and every day there will be the hugely popular a free-to-enter ITV7 competition.

Opening Day - Thursday 11th April

On the opening day, three Grade One races headline the ITV Racing card - the Boodles Anniversary 4 year-old Hurdle (2.20pm), the Aintree Bowl Steeple Chase (2.55pm) and the William Hill Aintree Hurdle (3.30pm). At 4.05 is then the Randox Foxhunters’ Open Hunters’ Steeple Chase over the Grand National fences, followed by the 4.40 Close Brothers Red Rum Handicap Steeple Chase.