Back in the stands it’s still the usual joyous mix of boozers and gamblers.

But in the middle the toned-down Aintree fences attract a far better field than days gone by when the fearsome obstacles made the race too much of a lottery for trainers to chance their best horses.

Not any more and Long Run looks the classiest runner of the lot and is worth backing each way at 14/1 with our betting partners Paddy Power paying out all the way down to fifth place.

Robert Waley-Cohen’s charge will be ridden by his son Sam who has a cracking record of getting round Aintree.

Long Run will be conceding lumps of weight to many of his handicap rivals.

But that is only natural for a horse who has won the Cheltenham Gold Cup and The King George twice .

Adding the National to that would be quite a feat but the trainer’s horses are in decent nick and Waley-Cohen junior knows how to nurse a horse round the track to leave a bit in the tank for the long run-in.

Hopefully our horse will be a welcome change in a recent grim run of losing football tips.

But in the best traditions of a fallen jockey let’s get straight back in the punting saddle and have another crack at the bookies.

Newcastle players are already in their Speedos for the summer and have switched off completely.

They were awful last week against Southampton so Man Utd must be the backed at around even money for their visit.

That’s a bit skinny for us so let’s team them with Everton in the big match of the weekend against Arsenal.

The Everton/Man Utd double pays around 4/1 so let’s lump on that and hope the football and horses all go our way.

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Running Total for all bets this season to a £10 stake: £-30.00