THE 2024 Grand National was a much-changed race, and those alterations have been debated enough without me giving a watery take beyond to say that they have felt inevitable over the past few years.

Hailing the changes as success or failure based on a one-race sample is risky. However; this year may have gone off without major incident but each race is an independent event and a 34-strong field competing over a marathon trip seems as likely as not to produce its share of pandemonium.