REGARDLESS of where you stand on whether safety-led changes to the Grand National have gone too far, it felt as though there was a unanimous sigh of relief after this year’s Aintree feature race went off pretty much without a hitch.

A total of 21 runners completing the course represented the highest number of Grand National finishers in nearly two decades, and there was no faller from the 32 runners, though four did unseat.

Any renewal when we avoid a serious injury in the world’s most famous race is obviously positive. However, there ought to be a refrain of sorts from the industry over zealously patting itself on the back after the evidence of just one running of the new-look National. As BBC commentator John Hunt pointed out this week, the tone surrounding the race in recent days would be very different if Corach Rambler’s fall when loose at the second had proved detrimental to his health.

More runnings of the modern-day National are needed before we can make firmer conclusions about the latest changes to the race, but the sport must be comfortable with the reality that there will always be risk in racing, and that very much includes the Grand National.

We are all keen to take steps to lower the level of risk, but - just like an array of pursuits in life - that level of risk will never be zero. We must own that and not shy away from reality.

Class to the fore

Another reality is that the Grand National is now a classier race than it has ever been, and that will probably mean the chances of a fairytale story involving smaller connections winning the Liverpool highlight hinges on them finding a proper high-class horse - the type of horse most smaller outfits rarely seem to have access to these days.

The first four home in the 2024 Grand National were all Grade 1 winners (including a former Cheltenham Gold Cup winner), trained by Willie Mullins, Gordon Elliott and Henry de Bromhead. The first two are owned by J.P. McManus and Gigginstown House Stud, while Paul Townend, Jack Kennedy and Rachael Blackmore filled the first three places. We are talking about the most elite trainers, jockeys and owners in the game - and all of them Irish, as an aside.

One of those riders is having what could easily be described as a season of all seasons. The 2023/’24 campaign has been nothing short of extraordinary for Paul Townend.

In delivering a sublime, ground-saving ride on I Am Maximus to win the Randox-backed prize, he became only the second rider in history – and the first since 1930 – to win the Champion Hurdle, Cheltenham Gold Cup and Grand National in the same season.

A campaign that started with a stateside success in the Grade 1 Iroquois Hurdle at Percy Warner Park aboard Scaramanga - and a Galway Hurdle peach on Zarak The Brave - has developed into an extraordinary winter and spring for the unquestionably top-class horseman.

As for highlights, there have been any number. His partnership with State Man has yielded wins in the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham and Irish Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown, preceded by Morgiana and Matheson Hurdle glory. Galopin Des Champs has chipped in three wins at the highest level so far this term - the Cheltenham Gold Cup, Irish Gold Cup and Savills Chase - and his Cotswolds heroics saw Townend join the legendary Pat Taaffe on a record-equalling four wins in the Blue Riband event.

Big-festival success

At the Dublin Racing Festival, the Co Cork native had a four-timer of Grade 1 wins, and the 2024 Cheltenham Festival was the 33-year-old’s playground. A total of six winners saw him crowned leading rider at the meeting, and he would have earned this columnist’s vote for ride of the meeting when partnering Absurde to what looked an unlikely victory in-running in the County Hurdle. It was an exquisite piece of riding.

The same mastery was not required when bolting in on Lossiemouth in the Mares’ Hurdle at the meeting, though a Grade 1 win in the same colours on Gaelic Warrior that day demonstrated how he was riding with an extremely high degree of confidence, for all that he was on the best horse in the race.

When it comes to the Honeysuckle Mares’ Novice Hurdle at Fairyhouse, Townend was again on the most talented runner in the line-up but he put on a clinic in patience and timing when getting the fractions just right on Jade De Grugy.

Fast forward to last week, and I Am Maximus was completing an Aintree Festival four-timer for Townend, preceded by top-level wins on Il Etait Temps (Manifesto Novices’ Chase), Impaire Et Passe (Aintree Hurdle) and Dancing City (Sefton Novices’ Hurdle). Success on the biggest stages has become metronomic for the understated horseman who very much lets his riding do the talking.

Punchestown feast

With a host of big chances to come at the Punchestown Festival, including a bundle of Cheltenham heroes from the Willie Mullins camp, Townend was priced as 2/5 favourite with the Betfair Sportsbook this week to notch a seventh Irish National Hunt jockeys’ championship. Jack Kennedy’s lead has been shrinking and a typical week for Mullins and Townend at the Co Kildare venue will make it tough to repel the tide.

The reigning champion registered 11 winners at last year’s finale meeting in the Irish jumping calendar, and Mullins notched 17. His short-priced possible Grade 1 mounts this week include the likes of Ballyburn (1/2 favourite), Galopin Des Champs (4/5 favourite), Gaelic Warrior (2/5 favourite), State Man (1/3 favourite), Lossiemouth (1/3 favourite), Kargese (7/4 joint-favourite), Dancing City (7/2 favourite) and Embassy Gardens (4/1).

A fruitful 2024 Punchestown Festival could also ignite a further conversation surrounding Townend’s exploits this term. He has won a whopping 18 Grade 1s this season across all countries. If he were to break what is believed to be a record of 22 Grade 1 wins in a single season achieved by Ruby Walsh in 2015/’16 and by Townend last term, could the current campaign be classified as the best any National Hunt rider has ever recorded? The case can certainly be made given the remarkable depth to his CV for 2023/’24.

If he could snare another jockeys’ championship and help Mullins plunder a first British trainers’ title with a key win or two in the coming weeks, it would surely be the most impressive collection of wins any National Hunt rider has mustered up in a long, long time.