Aintree has promised to address “flaws” with Grand National ticket sales after badges for next year’s showpiece event were listed on secondary sites shortly after some areas of the venue had sold out.
Tickets for the 2018 Randox Grand National festival went on sale to past customers on Tuesday, but on the same day many tickets – including for most of the seated areas – were completely sold out.
However, tickets were already appearing at inflated prices on resale sites such as Viagogo and StubHub. Tickets for the sold-out Princess Royal stand, which have a face value of £145, were today (Friday) on sale on Stubhub for £204.50.
Aintree managing director John Baker said he was disappointed regular racegoers had seemingly lost out to profiteers.
“From my perspective it’s very disappointing and frustrating this is happening as the idea of the pre-sale is to look after regulars,” he told the Racing Post newspaper.
“There are clearly a couple of flaws in the system that this has exposed which we’ll need to address for the future.
“The link on the email can be forwarded. There is a reason why that is permitted. What you can find with people in a group is they take turns to book each year, but that can possibly mean some people could send it on to people who haven’t booked before.”
However, Baker said he did not want to prevent individuals from buying large quantities of tickets.
He said: “I’d find it hard not to offer groups who have come with us before to get the seats they want and have had before, but we’ll look at this and see whether action needs to be taken.”
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