Grand National 2013: sharing two passions with Sir Alex Ferguson is a dream come true for fan Ged Mason It was a chance meeting at a Manchester function that proved the starting point for Mason's alliance with Ferguson. The pair wiled away the night with stories about their shared passion for racing. At that point Mason, now 49, just had jumpers while Ferguson, who had already won seven Group Ones in a row, including the 2000 Guineas, with Rock Of Gibraltar, just had Flat horses. After a time, they agreed to venture into each other's codes by sharing horses - besides the jumpers with trainer Paul Nicholls they also have Flat horses with Richard Hannon and Andrew Balding - and a profitable partnership was born. "We're in regular contact," Mason said. His knowledge of racing is better than mine but we discuss all aspects of each horse, when they are running, who'll ride and it's a three-way conversation usually with Paul. We try to come up with the right thing for the horse. If we have a winner we'll have a good glass of wine to celebrate and we've made a pact that when we have big winners we donate part of the winnings to charity because we're only in it for fun so if one of them won the National tomorrow a charity would benefit. It was another chance meeting that first sparked Mason's involvement in racing. On St Patrick's Day in 1985, Mason found himself at the Midland Hotel in Manchester where he bumped into Tim Kilroe, a local businessman who was celebrating having won the Gold Cup earlier that day with Forgive "N Forget and had the trophy with him. That stuck with Mason and in 2000, with advice from Kilroe, he invested in his first horse, Sporazene, with Nicholls. "I chose Paul," Mason explained, "because he was number two in the championship to Martin Pipe at the time and the number two always strives to be number one." Sporazene was a dream first horse. He won the Four-Year-Old Champion Hurdle at Punchestown in 2003, the Vincent O'Brien at Cheltenham in 2004 and a quarter of all the races he ever ran in. That gave me a real taste for it. What A Friend might not lead the betting for Saturday's showpiece race - even Ferguson admitted on Thursday that he "would be happy with finishing in the top seven or eight" - but he is far from an irrelevance. The 10-year-old has been very successful winning two Grade One chases, the Lexus and Tote Bowl at Aintree, as well as finishing fourth in the Gold Cup. He ran in the National two years ago pulling up at the fourth last. "He ran in the Gold Cup that year and the National came a bit quick afterwards for him," Mason said. It was also a very hot day and he suffered from dehydration afterwards. This time round he's fresher having missed the Gold Cup. It will be a big ask with his weight [11st 9lb] but his profile is not dissimilar to Neptune Collonges. He's outperformed all the expectations we ever had for him. Mason's first memories of the National were of Red Rum's triumph in the seventies. "It was a family ritual to watch and have a little bet," he recalled. Now I'm delighted to have two runners in the world's greatest race. If they both come back safe, Alex and I'll be happy.