The National that took 48 hours to run

Twenty-five years ago, the Grand National  was postponed by two days after a bomb threat from the IRA forced the evacuation of the course.

Racegoers leave Aintree after an IRA bomb scare forced the postponement of the 1997 Grand National. Picture: Mike Cooper /Allsport

At around the time that racehorse trainer Jenny Pitman was weeping bitter tears live on British television, it dawned on the Irish jockey, Mick Fitzgerald, that his father, Frank, had gone missing in action. 

It was the first Saturday in April, Grand National day, 1997. Twenty-five years ago, exactly.