A virtual Grand National will be televised next weekend despite the race being cancelled.
Forty runners who were most likely to have ran the race will line up to take part using CGI technology and special algorithims.
The virtual broadcast will take place on ITV at 17.00pm on 4th April 2020.
Executive producer Rob McLoughlin said: “We use the latest CGI technology and algorithms and were ready to go ahead as a forerunner to the big race, but now we want to cheer the nation up and ask the computer if history could have been made.”
McLoughlin, of Carm Productions, is a former director of Granada Television who grew up in Maghull, near Aintree.
The virtual Grand National broadcast will also pit Aintree legends Tiger Roll and Red Rum against each other in a “Race of Champions”
“In 2017, Cause of Causes won the Virtual Grand National and came a close second in the real race hours later,” explained Steve Rogers, chief commercial officer for virtual sports at animators Inspired Entertainment.
“The 2018 result was breathtaking as Tiger Roll won both in almost identical circumstances and the computer chose three of the top five finishers, including the Tiger, in 2019.”
Tiger Roll had been due to seek an unprecedented third win in a row in the big race on Saturday, 4 April before it was cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic.