Sport: Grand National

Forty-two horses came out of the paddock gate and moved up the midway to the barrier. Some walked quietly and lightly, with the jockeys sitting up high to save their backs even in this short walk; others skittered sideways, excited by the sight of other horses, by the crowd (250,000) that showed like a dark ocean along the fences, washing up into a wave in the grandstand. It had been raining in the morning, but the rain had stopped; the sky was full of shifting clouds through which the sunlight shone in patches. Three...

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