Randox Health Grand National 2019 live on ITV

ITV will broadcast exclusive free-to-air coverage of the 2019 Randox Health Grand National meeting live from Aintree on 4-6 April.

Ed Chamberlin and Francesca Cumani will present ITV Racing’s coverage of the three-day festival from the famous Liverpool racecourse, starting with the opening day and Ladies’ Day in the lead-up to the showpiece event in British horse racing, the 2019 Grand National on Saturday, 6 April at 5.15pm.

Tiger Roll was the winner last year and fancied by many to become the first horse to claim back-to-back victories since Red Rum in 1974.

Across the week, the BAFTA-winning ITV Racing production and technical team will use state-of-the-art equipment and show almost 14 hours of coverage, taking in the major feature races every day, going behind the scenes at the course, interviews with key figures including everyone from stable staff, trainers and owners through to the jockeys as well as racing legends, as well as sampling the unique atmosphere in the grandstands.

Sir AP McCoy, Luke Harvey and Mick Fitzgerald will provide expert analysis across all three days, with reporting from Oli Bell, Alice Plunkett, Rishi Persad and Brian Gleeson. Matt Chapman will oversee the Social Stable and Richard Hoiles will be the lead commentator.

Additionally, jockey Bryony Frost, currently injured with a broken collarbone, joins the team on Friday and Saturday. Brough Scott also returns for Grand National day to bring his unique perspective to the festival. Lucy Verasamy will provide the weather forecasts, Mark Heyes and Charlotte Hawkins join the team on Friday to cast their eye over the spectacular Aintree fashions, and Chris Hughes is back to join Matt Chapman in the Social Stable for all three days. 

ITV’s coverage will include features on some of the main Grand National contenders and the team will have every aspect of the action covered on the course, behind the scenes and in the stands.

Alongside live afternoon coverage, The Opening Show, presented by Oli Bell, will air on ITV4 every morning throughout the festival to preview each day’s action, with an extended 90-minute edition on Saturday. 

All ITV Racing coverage from Aintree across ITV and ITV4 will also be simulcast on the ITV Hub, on web and app, for viewers to watch online and on the ITV Racing website – itv.com/racing.

ITV Racing’s Social Stable, a social media hub based at the track, will be linked to all the channel’s Twitter, Facebook and Instagram profiles ensuring viewers can get involved in the action. The popular ITV7 competition will also return ahead of the festival.

Also back this year is the Virtual Grand National on Friday evening at 8pm on ITV, presented by Nick Luck, with a repeat showing on ITV at 1pm on Saturday ahead of the channel’s live coverage of the real race.

Last year the virtual CGI running of the race correctly predicted the winner of the race itself, with Tiger Roll doing a ‘double’. The 10-1 shot won the virtual Grand National, which is driven by sophisticated CGI technology and algorithms.

Horse racing returned to ITV for the first time more than 30 years in 2017 as part of a four-year deal to show UK horse racing on terrestrial television encompassing live broadcasts of almost 100 days of racing each year across ITV and ITV4.

Full TV schedule and race cards can be found below, while further Grand National Festival information can be found via itv.com/racing.

Every race from the 2019 Grand National Festival will be broadcast live on dedicated horse racing channel Racing TV, including exclusive live coverage of the first and final races of each day.

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DAY 1 – THURSDAY 4th APRIL

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DAY 2 – FRIDAY 5th APRIL

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DAY 3 – SATURDAY 6th APRIL

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