Think of a number

40 - Maximum number of entrants
16:15 - Start time
1839 - Year the event first took place
8 minutes & 47 seconds - Quickest time the event has been completed in
5 ft 3 inches - Height of tallest jump
17 - Age of youngest entrant ever to win
£950,000 - Prize fund

When "Numerical" was drawn out of the blip cup for this weekend I considered something Grand National themed as one of my entries given there are a lot of numbers involved from all the facts and figures available to the odds and bets made. What I didn't think about was the most memorable number from today being 2, the number of horses that died during the race.

I know this isn't a one time occurrence and according to press reports there's been 33 fatalities in Grand National weekend events over the past 11 years, maybe it is because I've read a lot of press and viewed some fairly horrific pictures this weekend that I'm thinking about it more.

I don't take an interest in horse racing at any other time of the year and it's been a family tradition to have a small each way bet on a Grand National horse for some time, I don't go to the betting shop, my brother in law takes the list from all the family hence the number of betting slips in this picture. The jockeys know the risk when they enter the race, the horses don't have a choice, I'm not sure I'll look on it as just a bit of fun next year.