The Halewood family won the race with Amberleigh House and now they sponsor it for the first time, contributing to its amazing £1 million prize fund. This is the 167th running of this historic contest that attracts a full field again and is sure to be yet another amazing spectacle. Hopefully all the riders and horses will return home safely. Much work and effort has gone into making changes to ensure, as far as is possible, the safety of all the participants.

This has become necessary after many negative headlines that have followed previous runnings of the race. For some it has meant that the race is less a spectacle than it was, producing fewer spills and thrills. For others it has meant that the race attracts an overall better quality of horse. If the changes contribute to better safety then they are hard to argue with. The race has no real competition when it comes to profile and winning connections can be defined by their success in the race. My own brother is usually still referred to as the Grand National winning jockey, in spite of it happening 26 years ago. Mention Ryan Mania, Tommy Stack, Jason Titley, Carl Llewellyn, Kim Bailey and Ginger McCain and the Grand National will be one of the first associations with which you will link them.