It's Not Just National Day, But International Day

We may have had 2-year-olds breezing up the Ascot home straight along with upbeat and downbeat bulletins of various Classic contenders, but this week in England we haven't quite fully surrendered to the Flat season.

For the switch-hitters among us, who make the purists shudder by loving the rangey beasts of the National Hunt game every bit as much as the bluebloods of summer, the rather important matter of Aintree has been occupying our thoughts ever since the roar of Cheltenham subsided.

Though there's much more to Aintree's three-day meeting than just the £1-million Crabbie's Grand National, the Liverpool track is synonymous with the unique 4 1/4-mile contest which was last year watched by more than 500 million viewers in over 140 different countries. At 5.15pm, the tapes will fly, to give one of 40 staying chasers the chance to wear the badge of honour earned by winning the world's most famous steeplechase.

Only one horse has ever won the race three times, and if it wasn't for Red Rum (Ire) (Quorum {Ire}), it's doubtful that I'd ever have followed a path into racing. As a pony-mad child in the mid-1970s, it was impossible not to be seduced by that perky bay with the sheepskin noseband who loved Aintree as much as the Aintree faithful loved him. He alone is responsible for my descent from interested bystander to racing obsessive, and for the involuntary tears at the annual replay of his unparalleled third triumph.

Bred to be a miler, Red Rum dead-heated over five furlongs at Aintree as a 2-year-old when the course still held Flat meetings, but it was the National that transformed him from being just another Thoroughbred into a horse for the ages. The winner in 1972 and '73, he was runner-up the following two years before returning at the age of 12 in 1977 to record his historic third victory in the race for Ginger McCain, who combined training horses on the nearby Southport sands with running a used-car showroom.

There'll never be another National story quite like the one written by Red Rum, but there have been plenty of enthralling installments along the way: the Queen Mother's Devon Loch collapsing on the run-in with Dick Francis aboard, Bob Champion and Aldaniti overcoming cancer and injury to triumph in 1981, the IRA bomb scare at the 150th National, and the all-out slog through the mud which saw Red Marauder return the first of only four finishers in 2001. The characters interwoven in the race's history are equally memorable. Captain Becher, whose fall in the ditch in the inaugural race of 1839 gave his name to the most famous fence on the course, the feared Becher's Brook; the Duke of Albuquerque, the Spanish gentleman rider who broke many bones in repeated unsuccessful attempts at glory; and not forgetting the most celebrated trainer of our time, Vincent O'Brien, who sent out three Grand National winners in a row between 1953-55 before concentrating on dominating the Flat scene.

Most people who love jump racing will have a cherished National story–a particular favourite of mine being the reported pessimistic advice given to his jockeys by trainer Captain Tim Forster, which was simply, “Keep remounting.”

These days, of course, jockeys aren't allowed to remount mid-race, and it is one of many positive changes made, along with lowering some of the fences and lessening the drop at Becher's Brook, to reduce the risks to the horses. Diehard fans may say the National is not what it used to be. That's true, but it's not what it used to be in a good way. For this observer, it's still a white-knuckle ride even from the ground, and to walk the course remains an awe-inspiring pilgrimage, completed with a pause by the winning line to pay respects to Red Rum, where he has lain since his death in 1995 at the age of 30.

For the first time in many years, I am not at Aintree today. Even typing those words prompts a moment of gut-wrenching regret. For there are many equally important race days for those of us who follow the sport day in and day out, but National day is the only time I can guarantee that non-racing friends and family will text me for a tip in the morning, or have a £2 lucky dip in their office sweepstake. Quite simply, it's the one day when the world is watching our sport, not National day but International day.

Last year's morning-of-race course walk took place in the company of fellow journalist Marcus Armytage, the last amateur rider to have won the race when he and Mr Frisk (GB) (Bivouac {GB}) zipped round in 1990 to set a course record which they sill hold today. Marcus may have hung up his boots, but Mr Frisk's trainer, Kim Bailey, has been enjoying a resurgence in his career in recent seasons and has a leading contender for this year's race in The Last Samuri (Ire) (Flemensfirth). The 2015 winner Many Clouds (Ire) (Cloudings {Ire}) returns in a bid to become the first horse since Red Rum to win back-to-back Nationals, while owner JP McManus, who won the race in 2010 with Don't Push It (Ire) (Old Vic {GB}), has no fewer than four chances this time around.

At the bottom of this column, you'll see I've been given a £50 charity bet on the National and sentimentality has swayed me towards an each-way flutter on a relative old-timer in the 11-year-old mud-lover Soll (Ire) (Presenting {GB}) at 50-1. It's not just because we happen to have two young members of his family which we hope will one day follow in his giant hoofprints, but Soll is a proper battler, a proven stayer and has experience over the unique spruce fences of the National course.

I've chosen SOLL as my OLBG.com Charity Grand National Bet – £25 EW. All proceeds go to Injured Jockeys Fund. See http://www.grand-national-guide.co.uk for a list of Grand National 2016 runners.