Final fence changes everything as Lucinda Russell hits the crossbar twice on Aintree's opening day

We bang on about the Cheltenham hill producing drama but day one at Aintree showed you can get thrilling finishes on a bowling green. 

Admittedly all the excitement in the day's feature, the Aintree Hurdle, came simply from seeing a truly incredible horse go about his routine business rather than anything overly dramatic. Constitution Hill extended his unbeaten record with the minimum of fuss and it's hard to believe we have seen many better than him. He was sent straight to the front and turned the home straight into a procession.

How Lucinda Russell must have wished it had stayed that way as much of the drama elsewhere on the card derived from the fact that two of her runners were collared close home.