THERE is only one Grand National, and while Sizing John was doing it for the purists at Prestbury Park, the highlight of 2017 over jumps was the Aintree victory of One For Arthur, trained for schoolfriends and self-confessed golf widows Belinda McClung and Debs Thomson by Kinross-based Lucinda Russell and partner Peter Scudamore, the horse ridden to a thrilling victory by Derek Fox.

Scottish horses have long been starved of success in the Grand National, and until last season, only John Leadbetter’s Rubstic had been successful for stables north of the border. That bald statistic tells a poor tale, however, and the history of the Aintree spectacular has been littered with heroic failures from Scottish yards, usually massively outnumbered in terms of firepower against their English and Irish rivals.