We’re set for a properly gruelling Grand National - and racing shouldn’t be afraid of that

In a year in which the latest round of alterations to the Grand National are implemented there is an unfortunate but rather predictable irony in the prospect of an external element threatening to ramp up the peril attached to the event.

Slashing the field by 15 per cent to a maximum of 34 runners; shaving another couple of inches off – and a further levelling of the drop at the back of – the last ditch before they thunder across the Melling Road and into the home straight; moving the first fence closer to the start; switching to an earlier off-time; a standing start and losing the distinctive traditional pre-race parade might all count for very little in a National run on very heavy ground. 

As is explained by Sulekha Varma in the corresponding Another View, the relocation of the first fence has come about in an effort to slow down the runners, who have been going faster as a direct result of previous changes.