It is currently scheduled to take place each year on a Saturday afternoon in early April. The next Grand National will be held on 9 April 2011. The steeplechase is the centrepiece of a three-day meeting, one of only four run at Aintree in the racing season. It is the most valuable National Hunt event in Britain, offering a total prize fund of £950,000 in 2011. The race is popular amongst many people who do not normally watch or bet on horse racing at other times of the year.
The racecourse is triangular in shape and contains sixteen fences, all except The Chair and the Water Jump are jumped twice. Some fences are notorious for their severity, particularly Becher's Brook and The Chair. In recent years, Aintree authorities have worked in conjunction with animal welfare organisations to improve veterinary facilities and minimise the danger of the jumps while still preserving them as formidable obstacles.
ahead of this week’s 2011 running of the world-famaous National Hunt horse race, the launch of “Grand National” - Elite’s ‘signature’ ZX Spectrum game from 1985 - as a stand-alone App for all iOS devices.
Grand National (for iPhone / iPod Touch)
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/grand-national-zx-spectrum/id428272397?mt=8
Grand National HD (for iPad)
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/grand-national-zx-spectrum-hd/id428261616?mt=8
A feature of the App (which is expected to go live on the iTunes App Store at around noon BST on Friday 8th April and will later be offered as an in-app purchase within the “ZX Spectrum: Elite Collection” apps) is the support (either at launch, or in the first update) for TV-out on iPhone 4, 4thGeneration iPod Touch and iPad. (Requires, separately sold, Apple TV-Out Component Cable or Apple VGA Adapter, or 100% compatible).
Other features of the App include:
- iDaptive (i.e. user-definable, game-specific joystick, keypad & canvass) Controls, an instructional video for which can be found by Googling “Tiny URL 22qh8hl” and here: http://tinyurl.com/22qh8hl
- ‘auto save’ on exiting any game
- separate infinite-lives version
Speaking about the App, Elite® MD Steve Wilcox said,
- the App will always be priced at £1.19 (Euro1.59, US$1.99)
- later this year, just ahead of the 30th Anniversary of its launch, Elite will be re-launching the Sinclair ZX Spectrum; the re-publishing of “Grand National” - Elite’s ‘signature’ ZX Spectrum game from 1985 along with the exploration of support for wireless keyboards is all part of our preparation
- to locate the App, just search for “ZX” at the iTunes App Store
