Life and/or sport generally don’t do fairytales but, in an almost ironic way, when they do, they often choose the Aintree Grand National as the stage for a heart warming tale. Now read on…
Think of Bob Champion overcoming cancer to claim the great race, or father and son combinations like Paul and Tommy Carberry or Martin and David Pipe annexing glory therein. Or perhaps the greatest National story of all was last year when Rachael Blackmore became the first lady rider to triumph in the National.
However, lest it be forgotten, Aintree’s annual cavalry charge could tell its fair share of tales of heartache too. Maybe none greater than that of Devon Lough. Owned by Her Majesty The Queen Mother, the mare decided to seat herself and her jockey, the acclaimed novelist Dick Francis, and they only yards from victory in 1956.
Not forgetting the possibly even more heart breaking tale of Esha Ness, trained by Jenny Pitman and ridden by John White, who won the Grand National that never was in 1993 at 50/1. It having been – wrongly in my view – declared null and void as a means of covering up the cacophonous ineptitude of starter Keith Brown and his assistants. There were other conclusions which could and should have been reached, but that’s a story for another day.
Today, mind you, at the Liverpool venue, there was a fairytale of the greatest kind when the decorated amateur rider Sam Waley-Cohen steered Noble Yeats, owned by his father Robert and trained by the burgeoning Emmet Mullins, to win on his final time in the saddle. He, too, was 50/1.
People riding their own horses has always been a divisive issue in racing, but, ultimately, they who pay the piper call the tune.unfortunately, though, those who ride their own stock tend to get undue and unjust slices of public ire. Which, sadly, has, in some cases,led to some people giving up riding.
Even though the likes of Barry Connell and David Maxwell and Aubrey McMahon have been quite successful aboard their own stock. They all, with respect, pale into insignificance in comparison to the achievements of the London financier.
The Gold Cup success aboard Long Run, the five victories on the National course before Saturday and the numerous other noteworthy wins during a career that was as admirable for its longevity as it was recognisable for its unorthodoxy.
To this observer at least the jockey’s nouse and ability at discharging the role evolved and improved markedly over the years. Some of the less experienced amateurs with not as many saddle miles under the girth have only one methodology – jump off in front and hope to stay there. As a friend of me says ‘You want to shut the gate or they’d go out it!
Over time, Sam’s style became more nuanced. Not only did he become more crafty at riding from the front, he was more than adept at giving his mounts the hold up treatment when needed also.
Never is that more the case than during Aintree’s showpiece event. Except in today’s case, it was a bit of a hybrid. Naturally Noble Yeats would need considerable fuel reserves, but at the same time, his rider would have wanted to ride him fairly close to the pace in order to afford the steed the best view of his obstacles.
It worked to such a degree that it genuinely looked as if the Mulllns charge had only jumped into the race at the elbow before outstaying the equally excellent Any Second Now.
Carlsberg don’t do racing swansongs, but if they did…
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