Most famous ten minutes in racing defines operator's zenith and nadir

Racing anoraks will be familiar with Charles Dickens because he finished third in the titanic 1974 Grand National won by Red Rum from dual Gold Cup winner L'Escargot, with the magnificent Spanish Steps in fourth.

Leaving Kim Bailey's yard this week it struck me that another Charles Dickens neatly summed up the zenith and nadir of Bailey's Aintree experience having won with Mr Frisk and suffered a wrenching defeat last year when The Last Samuri was denied in the dying yards.

Dickens opened his towering novel The Tale of Two Cities with the famous words: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." Bailey's 1990 and 2016 Nationals in a nutshell.