The star spotters will be out in force over the weekend in Liverpool – home of the world famous Grand National steeplechase. The day of the most famous race in the world jumps calendar always attracts a host of mainly British glitterati and royalty. And as the weather promises to be spring-like, the race day will no doubt see more than its usual share of garish outfits.
This is one of the biggest days in the entire British sporting calendar and has become something of a place to see and be seen for UK stars and a smattering of royals each year.
Almost everyone in the country seems to have a gamble on the race, and the odds for the Grand National and its 40 runners are keenly observed by experts and amateurs alike throughout the land.
But then of course the race itself has been immortalized in the movies – mainly with the 1944 film “National Velvet” which was all about the “National” or Grand National to give it its full title. On that occasion, of course, a young Elizabeth Taylor rode the winner only to be disqualified after the race once the officials found out she was a girl. One of the most beautiful women ever to hit stage and screen, the young Luiz clearly already had star quality and that strange mid-Atlantic kind of accent that meant you couldn’t quite tell if she was English or American.
A young Liz Taylor (left) in the 1944 movie “National Velvet” – image by Hollywood Fashion Vault
And that was appropriate because Liz was actually a little of both – and she went on to have a sparkling career. She was surely at her most breathtakingly beautiful and glamorous as Cleopatra – but whether she ever went to the real Aintree Grand National meeting near Liverpool each April, we aren’t really sure.
Nevertheless, a whole host of UK stars will most certainly be there as they always are. This attendance has been widely chronicled in the British media over recent years and has included, amongst many others, Prince Charles and Princess Diana back when things were still hunky-dory.
Charles’ grandmother, the late Queen-Mother was one of the most high-profile of jumps racing fans and she had a whole host of top jumpers down the eras. One of these was the horse Devon Loch who had the great race at his complete mercy on the run-in in the 1956 Grand National when he suddenly flopped and spread-eagled onto all fours in one of the most bizarre incidents ever to happen in the race. The Queen Mother never had the winner of the grand National and Devon Loch’s jockey, the late Dick Francis, was never to ride the winner either – but he did go on to write many successful crime novels – all connected with the world of racing in some way.
The late Queen-Mother’s horse Devon Loch came within yards of winning the 1956 Grand National – image by Robert Cutts (pandrcutts)
A number of Francis’s novels were also made into movies or TV dramas – though none concerned the Grand National. A movie that did, though, was “Champions” made in 1983 about the 1981 Grand National winner Aldaniti and his jockey Bob Champion. The jockey had fought back from testicular cancer and the horse had come back from a life-threatening injury; so the winning partnership was something of a miracle. It’s a great film and, unlike National Velvet, is based on real events and stars John Hurt and Edward Woodward; one for the whole family.
As for which stars will be seen at Liverpool this year – well simply look out for which movie stars currently have something big to promote in the UK about now and there’s a pretty good chance they’ll be there.