Covid and a number of scandals hit racing off the track, but on it history being made at Aintree took some beating
As recently as 2005, less than a year after saddling his fourth Grand National winner, the late trainer Ginger McCain, of Red Rum fame, made a confident prediction that a female jockey would never win the world’s most famous steeplechase.
At the time, it had been a decade since a woman had even taken part and only two of the 15 female jockeys who had ridden in the National managed to complete the race.