Coral Scottish Grand National Festival
New for 2008 is our all inclusive bus and entry ticket
for Saturday 19 April click
here for more details.
Please call 0870 850 5666 to book tickets.
THE two day Coral Scottish Grand National Festival, held on Friday April 18 and Saturday April 19, is Scotland's richest jumps meeting with more than £500,000 in prize money and £200,000 on offer for the National and a further £100,000 for the Samsung Electronics Scottish Champion Hurdle.
Crowds of more than 20,000 will descend on Ayr over the two days
and the big race itself attracted more than 900,000 viewers when
screened live on Channel 4 last year - one of the biggest
television racing audiences of the year. An added bonus this year
those attending Friday's opening day will be able to enjoy a
live concert by Ireland's legendary folk rockers The Saw
Doctors.
This band are firm favorites with the jockeys and a huge
crowd will enjoy their special brand of music. The boys
co-headlined last year's Rock At The Racecourse and went down a
storm.
The Coral Scottish Grand National is one of the most exciting spectacles in racing with 28 of the country's top long distance chasers battling it out over four miles and half a furlong of the famous Ayr track.
Some of the greatest names in horse racing - both human and equine - have won the race and people come from all over the UK and Ireland to attend the meeting where the atmosphere is electric.
2007 saw Coral sponsoring the race for the first time and what a success it turned out to be with Yorkshire based Irish-born trainer Ferdy Murphy sending out the first two horses in Hot Weld, ridden by young Irish jockey PJ McDonald and Nine de Sivola piloted by stable jockey Graham Lee.
Jumps racing aficionados adore the Coral Scottish Grand National Festival as inevitably several horses that have won or gone close at Cheltenham (held about a month earlier) come to Ayr in search of the big prize money. Traditionally horses that fall early in the Aintree Grand National a fortnight before also take their chance.
In addition to the Coral Scottish National there are some great support races including the Samsung Electronics Scottish Champion Hurdle and the Ashleybank Future Champion Novices Chase.
Everything about this fixture oozes class and the jockeys who will head north read like a who's who of the jumping game. Ruby Walsh, AP McCoy, Richard Johnson, Graham Lee, Tony Dobbin, Timmy Murphy and Robert Thornton will all be here.
Racegoers attending Ayr will be able to sample for the first time some exciting new facilities. In the Grandstand area there will be a new £4 million Grandstand facility - a Sports Bar on the site of the former Betting Hall which runs between the Paddock area and the Betting Ring.
For further information on the Coral Scottish Grand National Festival or to book tickets please call 0870 850 5666.