It was a solid performance but highlighted once more that Nicky Henderson’s five-time Grade 1 winner is declining in ability. He earned a career best rating of 45 from me over three years ago and has been running more slowly since.

I was only able to award Long Run a decent rating here by basing it on the time he clocked from the third and adjusting it to take account of the increased pace from seven out.

This is a somewhat debatable method but at least it fits with the recent form of the first and second. I wouldn’t want to bet on Long Run producing better form as he was ridden right out.

Long Run made a few jumping errors, three in total, but never looked in danger of falling. Indeed he has never fallen and is very clever at ‘finding a leg’ when he makes a mistake.

However, as we saw in the King George, he is not immune from landing so steeply and making such a big effort to recover that he ejects his rider. As far as the Grand National is concerned, this is not a great habit.

In the last 22 renewals of the National (as far back as I can trace) there have been 105 runners that unseated their rider in one of their last six starts. None of the 105 won and only one reached the first three (Black Apalachi, second in 2010).

Even if Long Run stays and produces the best form he’s now capable of there has to be a big concern that he’ll have trouble with the newly modified fences because several are lower on the landing than the take-off side.