SATURDAY’S Welsh Grand National was worth the wait. A two-week delay meant that Raz De Maree was 13 years old, not 12, but it didn’t stop him winning it.

It was a fine training performance by Gavin Cromwell, only the second Irish-trained winner in the history of the race. The realisation of a goal that was just about a year in the making, the coming-to-fruition of a plan that was hatched 12 months previously, when Jimmy Swan’s horse finished second in the race, beaten a length and three-quarters by Native River, who was rated 13lb higher the following week.