Three televised virtuals, and what each one proved

Three simulated races have been put on national television with a racing authority's name attached, and each one proved something different.

The first was the Virtual Grand National, on ITV4 at 8pm on Friday 7 April 2017. The concept came from the broadcaster Rob McLoughlin with Peter Eaton; Carm Productions made it with Inspired Entertainment and Aintree. The course was filmed the day after the 2016 Grand National with drones, tracking cameras and cherry pickers, then rebuilt as a free-camera 3D environment with fences that break apart when jumped. Inspired's standard virtual horses are built for races of two or three minutes, so a four-mile National needed new movement code, with the horses tiring towards the end. Steve Rogers described that change to TVBEurope on 12 April 2018.

What the series proved is that the thing is a weighted draw dressed as a contest. The 2018 edition named Tiger Roll, who then won the real race, and it is the only edition that did. In 2019 the virtual winner Rathvinden was third in the real thing. In 2021 the virtual winner Cloth Cap was pulled up. Racing Post called Cloth Cap a 4-1 favourite and grand-national.uk had it at 11/2; the desk has both and no way to settle it.

The 2020 edition is the only one where money changed hands. The real race was cancelled, the virtual ran on ITV at 5pm on Saturday 4 April, and the Betting and Gaming Council announced over £2.9 million in profits for NHS Charities Together, after an interim figure of over £2.6 million. Stakes were capped at £10 a customer a horse. The peak audience was 4.8 million, about 30 per cent of the television audience. Potters Corner won at 18-1, or 16/1 if you read Sporting Life. Ten of the forty runners fell and seven refused.

The integrity control in that race deserves stating plainly. Racing Post reported the race as pre-recorded, with Carm Productions undertaking to keep the result from leaking to the market. Nothing technical stopped a settled result reaching a bettor. A confidentiality undertaking did.

Australia got two in 2020 and neither took a bet. Inspired built the Lexus Melbourne Cup "The Race of Dreams" for the Victoria Racing Club, broadcast on Network 10 ahead of the real Cup on 3 November, with 24 past Cup winners picked by a panel from more than a hundred. Makybe Diva won from Phar Lap. Betting was ruled out because, in the release's own words, the outcome was already known in advance by a select few. The Ladbrokes Greatest Ever Cox Plate, on 7Two on Friday 23 October, put Frankel, Secretariat and Deep Impact into a 14-horse field of Cox Plate winners. Racing Post reported Frankel beating Secretariat with Winx third, and reported the Australian reaction as outrage. The field selection did that, not the engine.

No edition of the Virtual Grand National after 2022 has been confirmed, and Inspired's annual report for 2024 does not mention the product.