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Aintree Racecourse will hold an inspection on Friday morning (9am) due to waterlogging on the Grand National course. The Mildmay and hurdle tracks are unaffected and will not form part of the inspection.

The Grand Sefton Handicap Chase is due to take place on Saturday, which is the first race of the 2023/4 National Hunt season to use the famous Grand National fences.

The racecourse is anticipating further heavy rain on Thursday evening, which could call the contest into question.

"We are soft, heavy in places, on the Mildmay, chase and hurdle courses," said Clerk of the Course, Sulekha Varma.

"We're currently heavy, soft in places, on the Grand National course, with a couple of areas of concern that we are working on through today.

"We hope the remedial work will be done by the end of the day and that the course should be fit for racing, but the fly in the ointment for us is that we potentially have heavy rain tonight.

"Depending on which forecast you look at, it's anything from 5mm to 10mm or more, so we're just going to have to see what state we're in in the morning as to whether we can go ahead with the Grand Sefton, but the rest of the races are not affected."