Remembering Midnight Love (don't google it!) and other traps set for punters on Grand National trials weekend

It's Grand National trials weekend, what a delicious time to be alive – I mean that sincerely, although the phrase is mostly freighted with sarcasm these days.

If you're lucky enough to have a contender, there are good options for a final prep run at Haydock, Ascot and Punchestown.

For geeks like me, decades of getting over-excited each April makes these races thrilling by association. To the untutored eye, it may be hard to differentiate them from the many other insoluble marathon handicaps which beset our path through winter, but we approach them with the wild-eyed fervour of the amateur detective who needs just one more clue to blow this case wide open.