ENQUIRY UNDER ORDERS

TWENTY-SIX of the 40 jockeys in this year’s Randox Health Grand National face a Jockey Club enquiry today over the repeated false starts before the race.

Among the riders is Derek Fox, left, who gained a famous victory on the Lucinda Russell-trained 14-1 chance One For Arthur.

The race was run late in the afternoon at 5.15pm, to avoid any clashes with the football programme, and the Aintree stewards on the day opted not to hold what would have been a lengthy enquiry given the numbers involved. Today’s probe takes place six days after the 2016/17 jumps season came to a close.

The Grand National has ‘previous’ as far as false starts are concerned, notably the infamous ‘running’ of the race in 1993 which was declared void after 30 of the 39 runners ignored officials waving flags for a false start.

Nine horses completed the full course including first-past-the-post Esha Ness. The race was never re-run. This year there were at least two false starts before the race eventually got underway without further incident.

Originally 31 jockeys were reported, however on further consideration of the video tapes the BHA has decided that 26 should be included in the belated enquiry.

It will be determined today whether any, or all, of the riders are in breach of Rule (D)44.4 of the Rules of Racing in that they attempted to line up and/or take a position before being signalled to do so by the starter. The outcome may not be known until next week.