The Sunday Times - UK (2022-04-10)

14 April 10, 2022The Sunday Times 2GS

Racing Grand National

Start

Brought down

Fell Pulled up

Unseated

WHERE YOUR MONEY WENT

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

School Boy Hours

Agusta Gold

Run Wild Fred

De Rasher Counter

Death Duty

Eclair Surf

Anibale Fly

Deise Aba

Minella

Times Discorama

Mount Ida

Enjoy D'Allen

Kidisart

Domaine De L'Isle

Burrows Saint

Snow

Leopardess

Any Second Now had got to within a

length of him, but Waley-Cohen was a

force that would brook no passing.

With strength, rhythm and power

he stormed over the line a full two

lengths to the good, with Delta Work a

distant third, and Santini, Fiddleron-

theroof and Longhouse Poet finishing

after them.

Blackmore’s Grand National vic-

tory last year had been amazing, but

this amateur finale was in many ways

a match for it.

“I can’t say anything, I can’t believe

it,” Waley-Cohen gasped.

“I have to say thank you, as it’s my

last ever ride, to Dad. He’s had unwa-

vering belief and love for 23 years. It’s

been a love affair. It’s beyond words,

it’s a fairytale and a fantasy.

“I’m full of love, happiness and

gratefulness. It’s the dream come

true, it’s fabulous. I feel like quoting

Shakespeare — my cup runneth over.

I’m really emotional.”

In all the euphoria, nobody should

forget the horse that carried Waley-

Cohen and young trainer Emmet Mul-

lins, who so skilfully prepared him at

his base in County Carlow.

Noble Yeats is only seven years old,

and only ran for the first time over fen-

ces in October, which he won.

To prepare such a novice to tri-

umph at Aintree is some tribute to

Mullins.

Robert Waley-Cohen, the winning

owner, may have had to pay a bit, but

the horse was cheap at the price.

A stride before Sam had driven

Noble Yeats over the winning line, he

would have flashed by a little, low

boxed-hedge rectangle with two

bunches of flowers laid in front of a

grey-inscribed headstone.

It is the grave of Red Rum. Between

1973 and 1977, he ran five times round

the then unreconstructed Aintree

course, winning the first two, being

second twice, before triumphing

again. His feats saved the National.

Sam Waley-Cohen has signed off

having done a fair share of his own.

Congratulation is too small a word.

He has earned his own share of

immortality.

N

o sign-off will ever be as

complete. In the final

mount of his 20-year riding

career, 39-year-old Sam

Waley-Cohen won the

Grand National on his

father Robert’s 50-1 shot,

Noble Yeats. Last year,

Rachael Blackmore started a new

chapter for one category of jockeys,

while yesterday, Sam revived one that

looked almost extinct.

For no amateur has won the Grand

National for 30 years and he is the tru-

est of amateurs; he is in the game

because he loves it.

For the past 14 years, Waley-Cohen

has spent most of his non-family, non-

racing hours building up a high-pow-

ered dental business. He has a wife

and two children and his saddle car-

ries a memento of his brother, Tom,

who died tragically young.

But he has now won seven times

over the Aintree fences, has had ten

rides in the Grand National itself, was

second in the race in 2011, a year in

which he won the Cheltenham Gold

Cup, and is the only amateur to land

both of jump racing’s biggest prizes.

No current jockey has a better

record over these fences and this

showed yesterday through a Grand

National with more than its usual

share of carnage.

Only 15 of the 40 runners finished

the race, but Waley-Cohen gave you

the feeling that he would never be

among the failures. As ever, he was a

little, hunched figure of calm among

the chaos, working with his horse, not

forcing it; finding space, too, and not

rushing for it.

Up front, the grey Coko Beach was

making the running, accompanied by

Two For Gold, with Waley-Cohen and

Noble Yeats tucked in behind but

keeping out of the trouble, which was

still taking its toll and ended Black-

more and Minella Times’s dream of a

fairytale repeat at the ninth fence.

As in all Nationals, the search goes

for the storyline, and while there were

still plenty in the pack as Coko Beach

and Two For Gold led them out for the

second circuit, another dream faded

when Snow Leopardess, the much-

fancied equine mum, was pulled up

by Aidan Coleman.

Drama developed as the field

bypassed the third fence, where the

later-recovered Eclair Surf was being

treated. Coming back from the Canal

Turn, Longhouse Poet, Freewheelin

Dylan, Lostintranslation, Escaria Ten

and Delta Work were still in it.

The 15-2 favourite, Any Second

Now, was closing and, yes, Waley-

Cohen and those familiar light-and-

dark chocolate colours were still

there, but he couldn’t, could he?

There were still a whole bunch of

runners at the second last, but Noble

Yeats was in the mix.

Going to the last, he was in the lead

but Any Second Now and the Irish ace

Mark Walsh were closing.

On the longest run-in of all, the

hardened professional drove ahead of

the ageing amateur. We might have

accepted the situation, but Waley-Co-

hen didn’t.

He may be the public school edu-

cated son of privilege, but he was a

county standard hockey player, a

tough if unlikely shaped hooker, and

has kept up a brutal fitness regime

which includes rock-hard sessions

with a former boxer called “Gary The

Heat”.

Walsh may have had energy and

wanted this National, but Waley-Co-

hen just wanted it more.

He may have only ridden the

recently bought Noble Yeats once

beforehand, but he had the advantage

of the inside rail and in this last hurrah

became a little dynamo in the saddle.

PERFECT ENDING

FOR THE TRUEST

OF AMATEURS

BROUGH

SCOTT

Aintree

Sam has kept up a

brutal fitness

regime which

includes sessions

with a former

boxer called

“Gary The Heat”

1 Noble Yeats 50-1

2 Any Second Now 15-2 fav

3 Delta Work 10-1

4 Santini 33-1

STARTING PRICES

OF THE TOP FOUR