Grand National debuts for a Premier League regular and the Wembley announcer commentating on his second horserace

For jockeys having their first Randox Grand National rides, this will be a special day, no matter who wins. The same is true for two men with big jobs on this biggest of occasions.

Steve Crossman, well known to BBC Radio 5 Live listeners as one of the network's main sport presenters, is this year anchoring its coverage of the Grand National for the first time, while football and athletics broadcaster Kris Temple makes his debut as one of the BBC commentators just 24 hours after calling his first ever horserace.

With Mark Chapman in Augusta for the US Masters, Crossman is leading the BBC team and is relishing his return to racing having once worked for William Hill Radio.

"I'm super excited because it's such an amazing event," said Crossman, the regular host of 5 Live's Sunday Premier League programmes.

"Walking around Aintree yesterday felt like being at the world's biggest wedding – and I know it's going to feel like that multiplied by a thousand today. 

"In a weird way it reminds me of other sporting events. Seeing all the different shades of green made me feel a bit like the first time I walked around Wimbledon. When I then came into the winner's enclosure, someone said to me, 'Look left and right'. The last time that happened to me was when I was walking across the pit lane at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix."

Kris Temple is making his debut as a Grand National commentator before moving on to the Paris Olympics

Temple also has lots of experience on glittering stages as stadium announcer at Wembley, while later this summer he will be one of the athletics commentators inside the stadium at the Paris Olympics. Yet until joining John Hunt, Darren Owen and Gary O'Brien for yesterday's Topham Chase, he had never called a horserace.

Temple, who will relay the action from Valentine's Brook until the field heads back on to the racecourse proper, says: "The Topham was great but when they came into view after Canal Turn, I thought to myself, 'Right, this is really happening now.' 

He added: "As someone who has watched the Grand National for 30 years, right from being a little boy, to be commentating on the race is amazing.

"I've always said broadcasting on athletics in a stadium is one of the hardest things you can do because so much is happening at one time – I'll know how the Grand National compares to that a little later today."

More on the Grand National:

2024 Grand National runners, tips and ratings: David Jennings' pinstickers' guide 

Grand National day updates: punters turn to Willie Mullins with I Am Maximus clear National favourite and Capodanno cut to 25-1 

'He's exactly where we want him to be' - top trainers on their Grand National hopes

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