AINTREE often provides one of the earliest tests of the Cheltenham Festival form, and that happened in the Grand National itself this year, with Anibale Fly finishing third in the Cheltenham Gold Cup then fourth at Aintree.

In time terms, his earlier performance (168) was more meritorious than his later one (147) by some way despite the fact that he came out narrowly best at the weights under 11st 8lb at Aintree.