Why the Grand National is the holy grail and sporting immortality the prize – Telegraph.co.uk

The jockeys riding in Saturdays Randox Health Grand National at Aintree may face slightly different challenges to those faced by my generation in the 1990s - just as we faced very different challenges from those riders who tackled the upright gorse obstacles of the 1950s in cork helmets.

But even while the course continues to evolve, the Grand National remains a race like no other. Reg Green, the Grand National historian, even called one of his books A Race Apart'.

It still holds a place close to the countrys heart and though it may not be quite the family occasion when we drew the curtains and all gathered round a television set in the sitting room to watch it undisturbed, a good percentage of the nation will nevertheless see it one way or another - as will some 600 million around the world.

Form goes out of the window. The safest bet is that every Arthur in the country will have a small wager on One For Arthur, that Katie Walsh on Wonderful Charm will be this years housewives choice and, in China where red is a lucky colour, Definitly Red and Vieux Lion Rouge will be popular.

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Why the Grand National is the holy grail and sporting immortality the prize - Telegraph.co.uk