Incredible confidence as Fox pounces after sitting tight for so long - Leighton Aspell's Grand National analysis

After being told to wait in the weighing room at Aintree on Saturday until everything was under control out on the course, the 39 Grand National jockeys would have been delighted all the preliminaries were fast-forwarded and the parade scrapped, as this can just add to the nerves and some horses don’t cope with it too well. 

Now it was just a canter down to the first fence, a brief look and maybe a quick word with jockeys left and right of you; mostly about the relief of actually being finally out there and nearly ready to race. 

Back behind the tapes, some jockeys would have tried to find a starter’s assistant who had maybe checked their girths the previous year when they'd had a good ride around, hoping for the same luck this time.