Nick Rockett may have won the Bobbyjo - but he should have done - and Intense Raffles ran a race full of Grand National promise

Did we see the Grand National winner over the weekend? The first two home in the Bobbyjo on Saturday are now among the top five in the betting for Aintree, and of course the Fairyhouse contest provided last year's winner, so it's a thought to take seriously.

Timing-wise, this seems like just about the ideal time to give your National hope a final outing. The weights have been set, so there's no need to worry about the assessor's reaction, and there's time to recover, with the big day still six weeks off. 

Jockeys in the Bobbyjo appeared to keep in mind the need to avoid a hard race, with the field hacking around for the first circuit or so. It wouldn't make much sense to say that a three-mile chase turned into a sprint, because the sort of horse who runs in those races is just not capable of sprinting, but the speedometer on RacingTV stayed resolutely south of 30mph until the turn home; moments later, it was showing 36mph.