THE greatest steeplechase on earth was one of the great races with one of the great stories on Saturday as the Donald McCain trained Ballabriggs gave Jason Maguire a dream win.

The Grand National is never short of a grand tale - but there is always the downside.

That downside, of course, was the spectacle of two horses stricken and dying by fences.

No-one wants to see that - but the campaigners trotting out their usual mantra about how the race must be banned are also missing the point.

The National - in fact national hunt racing in general - is a dangerous game. Sadly there are casualties. That is inevitable.

I have also seen horses die at Beverley on a Tuesday night, I have also seen them die at Ascot, Epsom and the likes of Carlisle and Hexham.

I have also seen horses dead in fields when there is no human involvement. It does happen.

I have also seen the unbridled joy the sport can give - and put it this way, a national winner will never be seen dragging a rag and bone cart around the back streets of East Lancashire.

But because the race is on the TV and everyone has a bet, the knockers get their moment in the limelight.

It says much about the people having their say that they don’t mention the welfare of jockey Peter Toole.

Toole is fighting for his life after an horrific fall earlier on Saturday. These campaigners don’t even consider him.

Maybe we should go the whole hog and ban all racing. And while we are at ban motorsport in case there is a crash, ban rugby in case a scrum collapses and ban boxing in case someone gets hurt.

Sport is about risk...but it is a typical over-reaction, British disease I think you can call it.

We also saw the same over-reaction last night with the US Masters golf.

Rory McIlroy’s choke, self-destruct, capitulation, whatever you wish to call it was painful to watch - but also must-see TV.

However the reaction of the TV people gave the impression that the Ulsterman’s entire family had been wiped out. It was sport. No-one died. What we witnessed was a sportsman losing his bottle at the crucial time.

That is painful for McIlroy - but he will get over it.

Unless the do-gooders appear on the scene to ban the sport in case it hurts a few feelings.