HISTORY will record that this year’s Boylesports Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse on Easter Monday was run in a time quite a bit quicker than the average for the previous decade, on ground accurately described as “good to yielding”. But what it most certainly was within that context was a thorough test.

After Total Recall and Acapella Bourgeois led at various stages at a good gallop, Whisperinthebreeze made a bold and ultimately unsuccessful bid for glory with well over a mile to go, which did however smash the field up.