At its peak, an audience of 4.8 million tuned in to watch the Virtual Grand National on ITV1 last Saturday – over three times more than the same figure recorded for the Cheltenham Gold Cup last month.

With the majority of British-based bookmakers pledging to donate any profits they made on the race to National Health Service (NHS) related charities, a total of £2.6 million was raised.

Irish bookmakers BoyleSports nominated the Mater Hospital Foundation as its chosen charity while any profit made from all bets placed by Irish customers for Paddy Power and Betfair Sportsbook, went to the Irish Red Cross.

The computer simulated race was designed by Inspired Entertainment who assembled 40 horses and jockeys who were likely to be contenders for the real race and used algorithms based on likely ground conditions, weather, form and jockeys to decipher the result.

The big question was if dual winner Tiger Roll could win this hypothetical race, but he could only finish fourth as the race went to 18/1 shot Potters Corner who held off the late challenge of Walk In The Mill. Any Second Now, trained by Ted Walsh, did best of the Irish back in third.

Aintree’s Grand National meeting was one of the first big racing cancellations last month. The Grand National is easily the biggest race of the year, spectator and betting-wise, with 10 million tuning in to watch Tiger Roll make it back-to-back wins last year.