Tricky handicaps come in all flavours on the day Flat racing hands over to the winter game

If you like competitive handicaps in a variety of settings, boy, is this ever the day for you! It's handover time, the last day of Flat racing on turf in Britain this year, which coincides usefully with another step up in the action offered by jump racing.

Confident predictions are probably best avoided but the drama seems likely to centre on Aintree, where the green fences are back on our screens for the first time since I Am Maximus was simply too quick for his rivals in the Grand National. 

There was a time when Aintree didn't race outside April, a criminal waste of its famously good-quality turf, but the old place is certainly pulling its weight at the start of each jumps season these days, with the Old Roan Chase (won by Minella Drama a fortnight ago) being closely followed by today's BoyleSports Grand Sefton.