Coral report high turnover again for Scottish Grand National at Ayr

Five late non-runners in the Coral Scottish Grand National did not prevent the race sponsors from celebrating high turnover on the race thanks in no small part to the country's passionate punters in betting shops.

Coral spokesman Simon Clare said: "Betting turnover was really strong across all channels and turnover on the race in our betting shops was almost on a par with last year, which is fantastic as it bucks the general trend in retail.

"The Coral Scottish Grand National has now established itself as the fourth biggest betting race in the whole calendar, behind only the Grand National, the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Derby.

"A huge factor in that lofty position is the huge public support for the race in Scotland where our shops were packed full of once-a-year and twice-a-year punters on Saturday."

Coral also pointed to the ITV coverage, which was based at Ayr and built up to the Scottish Grand National as the climax of the show.

A 25-1 winner was the icing on the cake for the firm. Clare said: "It was a good one as Takingrisks was one of the lesser-backed contenders in a really competitive renewal where we laid a healthy spread of business across all 23 runners."

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