Hold your horses as Grand National delayed for wedding

THE Grand National is to start 25 minutes later on Saturday because of Britain’s royal wedding.

The race is traditionally run at 3.45pm and takes around 10 minutes to complete the four-mile, four-furlong course.

Prince Charles’s wedding to Camilla Parker Bowles will begin at 12.30pm, followed by a blessing in Windsor Castle at 2.30pm, the main event in terms of TV coverage.

The wedding was switched from Friday so the prince could attend the funeral of the Pope.

Charles Barnett, managing director at Aintree, said the decision was taken in consultation with the BBC, who would otherwise have had to decide whether to give priority to the wedding or the race build-up.

An ICM poll, commissioned by Ladbrokes, claimed that 36% of adults will watch the race, with only 18% keen to see the wedding.

Mr Barnett said: “We have taken this decision after a great deal of thought and discussion. We hope it will be a great day for everyone.”

The first four races from Aintree will be shown live on BBC2, and coverage will switch to BBC1 at 3.30pm.

Punters can now place bets on the next catastrophe to hit the prince’s wedding.

Bookmaker William Hill is offering odds on a host of mishaps which could cause more chaos for Charles and Camilla.

Following the couple’s decision to postpone their ceremony because of the Pope’s funeral, the public can gamble at 33-1 on whether a fed-up Camilla will stand Charles up.

The odds for the prince to do the same are 40-1, while at 25-1, the favourite disaster is for Prince William to lose the rings - something he confessed to worrying about.

A last-minute ultimatum from the Queen threatening to disinherit her son if the marriage goes ahead is set at 100-1.

William Hill’s Graham Sharpe said: “The royal wedding seems to be descending into a parody of itself so we thought we’d allow punters to speculate on what may go wrong next.”