£150,000 prize fund for Coral Scottish Grand National at Ayr

The Coral Scottish Grand National at Ayr on Saturday April 17 will have a prize fund of £150,000 making it the joint second richest handicap chase in Britain behind the Grand National.

The Class 1, Grade 3 chase run over four miles with a field of up to 30 runners boasts the fourth biggest betting turnover in the UK.

David Brown, managing director of Ayr Racecourse, said : “We are acutely aware of the position the Coral Scottish Grand National holds in the jumps racing calendar. It sits right up there with the most prestigious races of the year and we felt it only right despite the difficulties horseracing faces due to the coronavirus epidemic we maintained the prize money at the highest possible level we could.

“This is only possible thanks to the continued support of Coral who have sponsored this great race since 2007 and who cherish it as much as the team at Ayr do.

“The Coral Scottish Grand National Saturday normally sells out weeks in advance but unfortunately we are unable to welcome any crowd at all to this year’s big day because of ongoing restrictions. ITV 1 will of course be covering the action and in 2019 an amazing 1.2 million viewers watched the race – a record for the race and one of the highest viewing audiences of the year for racing on ITV.”

Simon Clare, Ladbrokes Coral PR Director, said: “The Coral Scottish Grand National is quite simply one of jump racing’s most important races, being the fourth biggest betting race in the calendar and the most prestigious race run in Scotland.

“So whilst sadly there will be no crowd this year, this has not affected our commitment and financial support for the event one iota, and we have worked closely with Ayr Racecourse to ensure that the big race is run for the maximum prize possible under the very challenging unique circumstances we continue to face.

“We are also thrilled to enhance our support for this brilliant racing event, by adding the Coral Scottish Champion Hurdle to our long-standing sponsorship of the Coral Scottish Grand National which dates back to 2007.”

The Coral Scottish Grand National was last run in 2019 owing to last year’s race being cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The winner that day was the Nicky Richards-trained Takingrisks who is expected to line up in the race again this year having recently won a Listed Chase at Doncaster.