The 2018 Grand National takes place at Aintree at 5.15pm BST this Saturday, 14 April. It's the biggest British jump race of the year and often draws bets from people who wouldn't dream of taking a punt on a horse race at any other time.

There's a magical quality to the Grand National, not least because it's one of the hardest jump races to win, with 40 horses and their riders taking on some of the most formidable hurdles.

It's also the most viewed race on the calendar, with terrestrial TV coverage and online streaming. Here then are the details you need to ensure you don't miss the action yourself, including if you are not in the UK this Saturday.

How to watch the 2018 Grand National on TV

In the UK, the Grand National will be shown live on ITV and ITV HD.

ITV's coverage starts at 2pm on the day, but the race kicks off at 5.15pm BST.

Channel numbers for ITV and ITV HD

  • Freeview & YouView: ITV 3, ITV HD 103
  • Sky: ITV 103, ITV HD 178
  • Virgin Media: ITV 103, ITV HD 113

How to watch the 2018 Grand National online

There are several ways to watch the Grand National streamed live, either on a PC, Mac or mobile platform.

You can watch it live through the TVPlayer application for iOS and Android, which hosts ITV as a free live service.

Alternatively, you can opt to watch it through the ITV Hub app for iOS and Android, or through a browser by visiting itv.com.

Finally, Racing UK is providing a livestream of the race to the betting apps for all the major bookmakers. For a small deposit (which can be used as part of a bet), you can watch the event live on the different apps for Paddy Power, Ladbrokes, Betfair, Coral and William Hill.

Racing UK will also be showing the race live, but you will need to be a subscriber to its cable service.

How to watch the 2018 Grand National for free abroad

If you are travelling abroad or live outside of the UK, you can also watch the race for free online.

For that you will need to sign up to a VPN service, such as NordVPN or ExpressVPN.

For a small monthly membership you can trick UK-based websites and mobile applications into thinking that your internet connection is situated in the UK, so streams from ITV Hub and the like will work no matter where you actually connect from.

Some of the VPN services even offer a free trial period before the membership starts, so you can watch the Grand National abroad for free.

Check out our list of the best VPN services to try: