Welcome to Aintree on Grand National morning, where a sellout crowd is gathering to witness one of the most historic and compelling spectacles in sport as 34 runners and riders line up for the big race at 4pm BST.
An early smattering of rain is clearing away, there’s a brighter forecast for later in the afternoon, and the betting market for the National is already heating up with an early gamble on Jagwar, one of just three seven-year-olds in the field. Panic Attack, the only mare in the field, is popular too, even though the last female (horse) to win was way back in 1951, and has just taken over at the top of the market at 8-1, while Jagwar is top-priced at 17-2 and yesterday’s favourite, I Am Maximus, has drifted out to 9-1 in a place.
Other names that leap out of the list for a variety of reasons are Oscars Brother, from the two-horse yard of Connor King in Ireland; Haiti Couleurs, bidding to be a first Welsh-trained winner since 1905, who is ridden by Sean Bowen and trained by his former babysitter, Rebecca Curtis; and Mr Vango, trained by Sara Bradstock, whose father, the hugely popular broadcaster and journalist Lord John Oaksey, finished second aboard Carrickbeg way back in 1963.
