The season steps up a gear this month, and so does the build-up to the 2027 Grand National. Mark your card, because October is the busiest stretch of the autumn: six meetings and the first real three-mile tests of the season. Grand National day 2027 is scheduled for Saturday 10 April, and this is the month the shortlist starts to form. If you only tune in for the National itself, here is why October matters. Only 34 horses line up at Aintree, and the places go to the highest-rated entries. That rating, the official mark the handicapper gives each horse, decides both whether it gets a run and how much weight it carries. Every outing this autumn nudges the number. […]