2011 Grand National prepared at Aintree - with a little help from their friends
The Beatles help out at Aintree ahead of the Grand NationalAS WOMEN racegoers were choosing their hats and dresses for Ladies Day, a few miles away Aintree workmen were busy preparing for next week’s John Smith’s Grand National.
A team of four fence dressers have been working seven days a week to set up the course in time for the world’s greatest steeplechase.
Head groundsman Mark Aynsley and his team will spend the best part of three weeks building the race’s famous fences from scratch.
This year, Beatles’ fans will be in for a special treat on Liverpool Day – the first day of the three-day Aintree meeting.
A Fab Four experience will be created with 12ft tall puppets of John, Paul, George and Ringo going walkabout between races on Thursday, April 7.
Beatles hits will be played by the Paul Kappa Band and racegoers can walk in the footsteps of the city’s greatest band – with a reconstruction of the famous Abbey Road crossing.
This year’s fence building was nearing completion today with the last of the National fences to be finished by Monday.
Mr Aynsley said 16 wagon loads – around 150 tonnes – of spruce branches had been trucked in from forests in the Lake District for the 16 fences.
While maintaining the course is a 365-day-a-year job, the 34-year-old said the eyes of the world will be on the fences on National day so they have to be built to a very high standard.
Mr Aynsley, from Ormskirk, said: “The fences are progressing nicely.
“Some of the groundsmen have 15 years’ plus service so they’ve been doing this a long time. However, there is always a new challenge. The biggest factor for us is the weather. It is the one thing we can’t control.
“We had such a hard winter but it has been nice weather these past weeks, so it is good to see it coming together. We always look forward to seeing people cheering in the stands and to seeing the fences in the papers and on television.
“There is a date at the end that cannot be moved so they have to be ready. But the staff take a lot of pride in their work, and they make a huge effort to get the course in fantastic shape.”
The former head green keeper at Leasowe golf course, who has worked at Aintree for four years, said it was difficult to pick a favourite fence. But he singled out The Chair, the 15th on the course and the biggest fence in the National, as being one of the most impressive.
He said: “They are all magnificent when they’re done.
“I like Becher’s Brook because of its history and the water jump, too. The fences at the Grand National are the only ones like that in the country.”
This year’s meeting on April 7, 8 and 9 is expected to draw more than the 150,000 racegoers who attended last year.
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