HORSES to note for the 2019 Grand National? Tiger Roll for sure. He will be nine and he will have more weight to carry than he did this year, but he still has to be at the top of your list.

Red Rum was eight when he won the first of his three Grand Nationals in 1973. At the time, he was just another Grand National winner, he was the villain in the Crisp tragedy. They didn’t know then the National hero that Red Rum would become.

There are similarities too between Tiger Roll and Red Rum. Both were flat-bred, both diminutive in the context of the Grand National. You never would have looked at either one of them and said that he was a model for the Grand National. And each horse was eight years old when he won his (first) Grand National.

The handicapper has raised Tiger Roll’s rating by 9lb to a mark of 159. That would mean that, all things being equal between now and then, he would have 11st 8lb to carry in next year’s National please God.

The handicapper might allow him a pound or two – it’s a ‘depression of the handicap’ thing – so maybe 11st 7lb or 11st 6lb. And you can be sure that his rating will not go up between now and the middle of February next year.

Red Rum won his second Grand National with 12st on his back. Neptune Collonges won it under 11st 6lb in 2012. Many Clouds won it under 11st 9lb in 2015. It’s doable. Tiger Roll could be the modern day Red Rum.

Childrens List. He ran a massive race in Saturday’s race. He travelled really well for Jonathan Burke and he jumped the fences fluently. He was probably just a little keener than ideal, he was still doing a little too much on the run to the Canal Turn final time.

He was still bang there on the run to the home turn, but he tired from there as his exertions took their toll, and he was ultimately pulled up after jumping the final fence.

It was still a big run from Willie Mullins’ horse, and this was just his fifth chase. There could be lots more to come from him, and it would not be surprising if his trainer has the Grand National as the prime objective for him for next season, and trains him accordingly.

Ms Parfois also. She didn’t run in the Grand National, but she ran in the Mildmay Novices’ Chase on the Friday, and she ran a big race to finish second to Terrefort.

The winner could be a King George horse for next season, and Anthony Honeyball’s mare was getting just the 7lb mares’ allowance from him. She finished just four lengths behind him, and she was clear of high-class staying novices Elegant Escape and Black Corton.

That race was over three miles and a furlong, but the Mahler mare proved that she could stay four miles when she was beaten just a half a length by Rathvinden in the National Hunt Chase at the Cheltenham Festival.

She is only seven, she still has plenty of potential for progression, and we now know that she can go well at Aintree.