Profitable pedigrees: the sires with the best National records

Nicky Henderson has been reminded more times than he would care to remember about his record in the Randox Grand National, a sequence of frustrations running from Zongalero finishing second to Rubstick in 1979, through The Tsarevich managing the same behind Maori Venture eight years later.

In more recent years, the six-time champion trainer has not always even had a runner. He isn't really known for setting out to buy staying chaser types anyway, for all that they can end up Aintree-bound. Henderson can take comfort in the fact that his runner this year, Mister Coffey, is sired by a stallion with a faultless record in the race having been responsible for its modern-day legend.

Tiger Roll, who began life as a juvenile hurdler, skipped over the green birch on both tries and might well have ended up more than two-from-two but for the intervention of Covid and the reluctance of connections to try him again in 2021. Mister Coffey is only Authorized's second National runner and is a half-brother to French black-type hurdler-chaser Myboy, bought by Tom Lacey for the Bamford family for some £340,000 at the Goffs UK Spring Sale after winning a Huntington bumper for Harry Whittington.