I went to the Grand National at Aintree for the first time and it wasn't at all what I expected

Despite being from Merseyside and living in Liverpool, I had never been to the Grand National festival until today. But, armed with my press pass, I headed to Aintree Racecourse this morning to experience Opening Day.

After a 20 minute delay to my Merseyrail train, I arrived at Aintree train station at around 9.30am and headed to the huge racecourse with my colleague, Emily. The train was very busy but, with the gates at the races not opening until 11.00am, we got to wander around the racecourse before thousands of spectators arrived.

The racecourse is huge, with tons of food stalls and bars, viewing points and, of course, the impressive track itself. As the gates opened, floods of smiling spectators began to pour into Aintree and the glorious sunshine definitely had everyone looking forward to the entertaining day ahead.

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After chatting to attendees, I learned that many people choose to attend on Opening Day due to the “calmer” atmosphere. One spectator said: “I much prefer the Thursday, Ladies Day and the Saturday are too busy,” while another said: “I come for the fashion and today is much calmer.”

Many attendees were dressed in smart-casual attire - including trainers and jeans - while others were donning glamorous fascinators, stylish suits and dazzling dresses. I was expecting to feel drastically underdressed but I could see that people felt comfortable wearing what they liked on Opening Day.

I was also expecting the day to feel stressful and super busy but I actually felt calm the whole time and didn’t personally spot any rowdy behaviour. Everyone around me was smiling, taking photographs, enjoying drink and celebrating the start of one of Merseyside’s biggest events of the year.

While horse racing isn’t for me, experiencing my first ever Grand National has helped me understand why some people love the races so much. I’ll be covering Ladies Day at Aintree too, so we’ll see how the two days compare.