IT might seem mad to describe the Grand National as like a virus but, yet, no horse race has more potency and has crept into households over the years quite like Aintree’s four-and-a-quarter-mile, 30-fence spectacular.

Whether you were brought up in a ‘horse’ household or not, National day created huge interest, through being encouraged to have a bet or just the added excitement of the race and the stories it inevitably produced.