Corach Rambler wins Grand National after protesters force delay to race

The favourite Corach Rambler won a dramatic Grand National on and off the course on Saturday after disruption on the track from animal rights activists resulted in the race going off late.

There were four fallers at the first fence and loose horses caused plenty of mayhem on the first circuit. The horses were waved round the first obstacle on the second circuit with Hill Sixteen still being attended to behind green screens.

Corach Rambler, who was supported into market leader at 8-1 just before the off, was always travelling well under Derek Fox, who had to pass a fitness test on the day of the race, and won from 20-1 shot Vanillier for trainer Lucinda Russell. The jockey and trainer combination had also won the race with One For Arthur 2017.

The winning rider said: “He’s been so lucky for me. I can’t believe it. He normally gets held up a little bit at the start but today he jumped off fine and he’s the cleverest horse. All I do is do the steering!”

Protesters at Aintree forced an official delay of 15 minutes to the off-time of 5.15pm with the authorities announcing around ten minutes before the race was due off that they were going to have to put back the timing of the event. Some horses due to start the parade for the National in front of the stands were taken away and led back to the pre-parade ring.

The promised action from pressure group Animal Rising materialised on the track about 20 minutes before the National was set to have taken place after claims that they were going to disrupt the world’s most famous race with some people climbing over the perimeter fence and getting onto the course.

Reports on ITV indicated that some protesters were attempting to glue or attach themselves to fences while others were