To celebrate this year’s Grand National, bookmaker Coral has staged its own aquatic version of the race at the Liverpool Water Sports Centre featuring six graceful flyboarders dressed as jockeys and holding model horses' heads as they flew towards the finishing line.
The 300m race, that took place beside the Mersey against a backdrop of Liverpool’s most iconic buildings, saw the flyboarders wearing the colours of some of the leading contenders for Saturday’s Grand National including Vieux Lion Rouge, Cause Of Causes, Ucello Conti, The Last Samuri and Thunder And Roses and The winning flyboarder came home wearing the colours of Vieux Lion Rouge, closely followed by Cause Of Causes. Coral currently makes Vieux Lion Rouge the 10/1 favourite for the big race with Cause Of Causes a 14/1 chance.
Coral staged the race to help provide yet another innovative way for the millions of once a year punters to pick their Grand National horse in the real race at Aintree on April 8th. According to the bookmaker up to £200m will be wagered in Britain on what is the biggest betting race in the world and over a third of the adult population in the country will have a flutter on the contest. It’s the one race of the year where the form of a horse is rarely the reason that punters use to pick their bets, with the majority instead picking a horse because of a catchy or relevant name, a link to their favourite colour, a lucky number or simply by closing their eyes and sticking a pin in the list of runners.
Coral spokesman, Simon Clare, said, “The Grand National is one of Britain’s most iconic and historic sporting events, and an incredible once a year opportunity to showcase the excitement of horse racing and betting to millions of adults across the nation. With people able to place bets in shops, over the phone, on their computers or on mobile phone apps, it has never been easier to place your National bet. The only difficult decision is deciding what to back so we’re hoping our innovative running of the Grand Splash-ional points people in the direction of the eventual winner.”
