The major changes to the Grand National 2024 including new start time and field size

The Grand National 2024 returns this weekend and people watching at home and from the side of the track will notice a number of big changes this year.

Five new measures have been introduced this year to ensure the safety and welfare of the horses and jockeys by trying to reduce the number of fallers and injuries.

The Jockey Club announced the changes to this year's race, which is held at Aintree, back in February, including moving the start time from 5.15pm to 4pm. Additional changes made include reducing the number of horses participating in the Grand National from 40 to 34 to lower the likelihood of incidents occurring during the race.

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The first fence has been moved 60 yards nearer to the start with the aim that runners will approach it at a slower speed from a standing start.

There will be no parade of the field before the race with the horses taking part in a canter past the stands instead. The height of the 11th fence has also been reduced by two inches to 4ft 10ins.

The review was carried out by Aintree’s owners the Jockey Club after protests disrupted last year’s race. The Grand National was delayed by 14 minutes while police and security dealt with protesters who got onto the course - while hundreds of others tried to break through perimeter fences.

The Jockey Club said in a statement: "We leave no stone unturned in providing world-class standards of welfare for our participants and undertake a review after every Randox Grand National. These reviews look at a wide range of factors and the learnings from the process drives a number of changes, large and small, annually.

"In October we announced that one of the changes being made from