Keith Melrose explains why this Grand National is not as different as the headlines suggest

It is telling that four of the five horses scratched from the Grand National before the weights were released are trained in Britain, while two of the three who were not qualified are Irish-trained.

While there are some serious factors behind the highly publicised disparity between British and Irish entries, part of it relates to attitudes. When it comes to bold campaigning in general and the Grand National in particular, the have-a-go spirit is far more prevalent in Ireland, while in Britain habits tend towards the more cautious.

It is hard to imagine many British trainers campaigning a horse in the way Noble Yeats was by Emmet Mullins last season. He was seven then, the minimum age for horses in a modern National. Of the ten seven-year-olds still in this year's race nine of them are trained in Ireland.