Kicking myself over a Grand National that showed Willie Mullins is even better than we punters realised

After last month's Cheltenham Festival, I wrote of Willie Mullins: "Runners other than his first string may be a useful source of value, because most punters hate to look past the first string." Now the Grand National has been won by Nick Rockett at 33-1 and I'm wondering how I didn't get a return – it's quite a familiar sensation, in fairness.

The master trainer had six runners in this National, of which the only one who failed to make the first seven finishers was Appreciate It, brought down by Kandoo Kid at the fence before second Becher's. Appreciate It, whose stamina was in doubt, had been settled in rear and was just starting to inch forward when his race ended, or he may also have run with great credit.

If we could go back in time and show the winner's SP to ourselves at the end of February, we might all be astonished. Nick Rockett had just won the Bobbyjo and been cut to 8-1 from 14s for the National by at least one firm. By the way, the Bobbyjo winner has now followed up at Aintree two years running.