Grand National going eased to good to soft with more rain forecast

The ground at Aintree for Saturday's Randox Grand National was eased to good to soft on Monday, with the prospect of more rain to come before the start of the three-day meeting on Thursday.

Following 7.5mm of rain overnight, the good to soft description appeared on all courses, with the Grand National course changed from good to soft, good in places and the Mildmay and Hurdle previously good, good to soft in places.

Clerk of the course Sulekha Varma welcomed the arrival of rain in the build-up to the big meeting.

She said on Monday: "We got a helpful 7.5mm of rain last night, which was very welcome after such a long dry period, and that has put us to good to soft on all three courses. It's a nice place to be at this point of the week and we're in a good place from a natural point of view.

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"It's dry here at Aintree today but further showers are expected tonight into tomorrow and on Wednesday. Thursday is currently predicted to be largely dry while there is a chance of showers on Friday and Saturday, which could be wintry."

Officials opted not to continue watering on Sunday due to the uncertainty about the weather, after 5mm was applied on Friday and Saturday.

On any further decisions about watering, Varma said: "The forecast has been so changeable we'll have to keep an eye on things but based on the forecast, there are no plans for any additional watering at this stage."

"We'll see how we go through racing, we can always water overnight if we need to."

Read more on the Grand National:

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