Fifty years ago Irish jockey Frankie Shortt sat aboard Aussie at the start of the Aintree Grand National. Little could have prepared him for the next eight minutes and one of the most amazing runnings of the world’s most famous steeplechase.

What a wizard this Michael Winters is! A year ago he produced Rebel Fitz to land the Guinness Galway Hurdle and returned to Ballybrit yesterday to win the race again, this time with the cracking mare Missunited.

BORDERLESCOTT, winner of the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes at Newmarket, justified odds-on favouritism in the listed Mercury Stakes at Dundalk last night.

THE village of Grangecon in Co Wicklow could grace a postcard, but the scenes of grief and shock there yesterday were more suited to a TV series.