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Hello and welcome to Grand National day, the biggest day of the racing year bar none and the one event that truly transcends the sport. Personally, I loved the days before racing’s weights-and-measures man, Phil “Tinkerman” Smith, started to fiddle about with the race but these days it’s truly wide open and the shortlists have become ever longer – everyone has an opinion which are not as easily dismissed and consequently more and more people are having a wager again. There’s nervousness about as the powers that be await to see if the latest tinkering with the track (the race is 20 yards shorter), the fences (No 11 has been lowered), the start (which will be a standing one) and the field (reduced from 40 to 34 maximum) will assuage the critics. Meanwhile, I Am Maximus is now clear favourite …
Good morning from Aintree racecourse, where the slightly surprising early news today is that the going on the Grand National course is now soft, good-to-soft in places, having been heavy, soft in places when it staged the Foxhunters’ Chase on Thursday.