THE Cheltenham Festival is the undoubted highlight of the jump racing year but the Grand National Meeting at Aintree can run it close and it may even have surpassed it this year in terms of standout performances on the clock.

It is difficult to determine the exact value in time terms of the Crabbie’s Grand National itself, as it is the only race over the course on the day, and one of only three over the entire meeting but we do have past Grand Nationals with which to compare it on a by-obstacle basis.

Those Grand Nationals, since modifications to the fences and the shortening of the course before the 2013 running, indicate that this year’s race was almost bang on par for the first circuit, then steadied, before the principals came home quite quickly.

That is in the context of the conditions, which were just about the slowest since the infamous Red Marauder contest of 2001.

This year’s winner, Rule The World, ran the slowest time since Mon Mome in 2009, when the course was about half a furlong longer, though that is not to say that it was a poor time or a poor winning performance in relative terms.

The gelding’s timefigure of 150 is something of an educated guess, but that he is a smart performer should not be in dispute.

The well-handicapped runner-up, The Last Samuri (147 timefigure), might have dipped slightly below the level of his Doncaster win but he had no obvious excuses and took to the course like a duck to water. Vics Canvas (139 timefigure) did remarkably well to finish third given that he nearly came down at Becher’s first time round.

In behind, Morning Assembly might have finished only eighth, but he looked highly likely to play a part for a long way, despite a circuitous route, and remains a well-treated individual for the return to shorter distances. Gallant Oscar was another to catch the eye until unseating early on the final circuit.

If Rule The World does not win another race (by no means out of the question given precedent) then he will still go into the record books as a solid winner of this historic contest. As a nine-year-old who was gaining his first success over fences, a bright future to go with his bright past seems a possibility at least.