Tiger Roll's heroics reaffirm all we love about him and the great Grand National

All across Aintree were four key words.

"The World is Watching" was how the racecourse summed up the Randox Health Grand National festival. Those responsible for staging the meeting, and those racing professionals who provided the action on the track, should be more than happy with what they achieved. They should equally be in no doubt what the world watched was a credit to the sport.

It is enormously sad the 2019 Grand National was not a fatality-free event. Since 2012 no horse had died in the contest that dominates and transcends racing. That, in itself, is a credit to Aintree, Jockey Club Racecourses and the BHA, whose combined efforts to make the race and its fences safer have been tremendously successful. Nevertheless, it was inevitable that at some point a life would be lost. On Saturday that happened.