Registered officially as the Liverpool Hurdle but known in recent times as the Stayers’ Hurdle, this huge event is a Grade 1 race over three miles and half a furlong and as such brilliantly compliments the Stayers’ Hurdle at Cheltenham, run just a few weeks earlier as part of the Festival.
Taking place on the last of three days during the Grand National meeting in early April, the Liverpool Hurdle is due off just an hour or so before the big one and with a prize of over £100,000 going to the winner it provides the perfect warm-up for the National itself.
The race was first run in 1974 at Ascot as the Long Distance Hurdle, but was transferred to Aintree in 2004 and has proven to be incredibly popular ever since. It has been won in this time by Monet’s Garden, Thistlecrack and four times by superstar stayer Big Buck’s.