How Red Rum got off the beach to enter racing history - and breathed new life into Britain's greatest race

In the midst of all the existential crises facing racing at the moment, perhaps the one that loomed in the early 1970s doesn't now appear quite so laden with doom, but at the time the very real possibility that the Grand National might be about to breathe its last loomed like a dark shadow over the sport.

In 1973, as Red Rum began his inexorable gallop towards immortality, Aintree racecourse was on the brink of being sold by the Topham family to property developer Bill Davies, whose interest in the old place seemed unrelated to sporting benevolence and city pride, more to do with housing estates and the bottom line.

Two years later, despite 'Rummy' having landed his second win in the great race, attendance figures hit rock bottom in the face of a tripling of ticket prices by Davies that meant a meagre 9,000 turned up to see him finish second to L'Escargot on his third attempt.