That was a great Grand National. Really. It had everything that you hope a Grand National will have: drama at the fences, a rousing finish, a brilliant winner, an incredible story, and everyone home safe and sound.

It was a high-class Grand National, a top weight rated 165, a bottom weight rated 145, and if you were any lower than that, you simply didn’t get to run. The quality of the race was reflected in the pace, strong throughout, unrelenting, and it in the winning time, 0.12secs/furlong faster than Racing Post par. And 16 horses completed, which was a fair achievement on soft ground. The previous soft-ground Grand National was Numbersixvalverde’s in 2006 (despite the official description of good to soft), when only nine horses completed.