They’re under starters orders for a ’virtual’ running of the Grand National on Saturday and an island owner has three runners in the race.
Saturday’s virtual Grand National will serve to raise funds for the National Health Service.
Betting operators confirmed all profits from punting on the race, to be shown on ITV at 5pm, will be donated to NHS Charities Together, the umbrella organisation that represents more than 140 NHS charities.
Nicola McGeady of Ladbrokes said: ’It is only fitting that all bookmaker profits on the race should go to the NHS for the heroic work they are doing during these difficult times.’
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The 40-runner field includes three horses owned by island businessman Trevor Hemmings.
They are Vintage Clouds, Lake View Lad and Warriors Tale. Mr Hemmings has won the real-life Aintree marathon three times before with Hedgehunter, Ballabriggs and Many Clouds.
The computer-generated favourite for the race is Irish trainer Gordon Elliott’s Tiger Roll who has won the race twice before.
The final 2020 Grand National runners will be turned into virtual Grand National horses by state-of-the-art technology. The virtual race will have clever algorithms fed into it, including likely weather conditions on the day, ground, recent form, track form, past Grand National trends, weight and age.