If a Cheltenham sing-song offended you just wait until you get to Liverpool!

After the high-octane, long pent-up pressures of Cheltenham in March, Aintree usually offers a welcome release and an even more lubricated atmosphere. It begs the question of just how unfettered the revelry will be over the next three days in Liverpool given Prestbury Park could hardly have been more exultant.

Two years ago, the Merseyside gala was lost completely, one of the first major casualties of the Covid-19 pandemic that ultimately denied us what proved to be Tiger Roll's sole shot at a third Grand National. It's something that has maybe since got lost in the noise.

Gordon Elliott had convinced Michael O'Leary to park his objections to the handicapper's treatment of the horse and announced in February that the hat-trick was on. "This is about Tiger Roll and nothing else," he told the Racing Post. "He's the horse of a lifetime and he's now the people's horse, so it was important that we made an early decision." Then the world stopped spinning.