LADIES DAY AT Aintree is always a colourful affair. And the colour is usually fake-tan thermo-nuclear orange. Sorry, girls.

Today thousands from Merseyside clip-clopped to the old racecourse in the sun to see if favourite Albertas Run could take the Melling Chase. But most of the cameras seemed to be on those in their glad-rags in the stands.

What we learned…

1. Ruby’s the man – we should’ve realised that already but we’re slow learners. The Kildare man, champion jockey at Cheltenham, was on board as the brilliant Master Minded took the step up in trip. He won the John Smith’s Melling Chase, gliding home in front of the gutsy Albertas Run by nine lengths.
2. Not even Alex Ferguson can bunk off work these days. The Manchester United manager has his much-fancied What A Friend ready to go in the National tomorrow.  Asked this morning, ahead of the Fulham match, if he will be monitoring events, he said sarcastically: ‘How am I going to be in touch? The game is going on. The players would really appreciate that. Me watching the National when they are in the middle of a match. We could be drawing at the time or only be one up. No no. I won’t be in touch.’ So to confirm, he will not be in touch.

Master Minded – pure class.

Loser of the day

Jockey Tom Scudamore, dislocated his shoulder and is out of the National tomorrow and Barry Geraghty gets the ride instead. Rotten luck – and sore too.

Tweet of the day

We gave Barry Glendenning the honour yesterday, but he’s having a lot of fun with his mobile. He captioned this pic with “How does he keep a straight face?”

Looking forward

Today’s the big one. Download your Grand National sweepstakes kit here.