Story of Aintree is of a treasure grasped from the jaws of death

Next week we have the joys, perils and shop-window worries of Aintree and the Grand National, which is always an event with the capacity to bite the hands that feed it.

Jumps fans of the Kauto Star generation blithely assume that the three days of Aintree – a splendid old hussy of a course – have always been packed with quality and part of racing's barely changing continuum.

But as a racing-mad child and teenager I recall that Aintree's future was forever in peril and each year the threat seemed greater that the race was on the point of breathing its last.