The Times - UK (2022-04-09)

GRAND NATIONAL

2022

2 Saturday April 9 2022
the times

Water Jump

2ft 6in

12ft 6in

Spread

Situated directly in

front of the stands,

the Water Jump is

much the shortest

fence negotiated at

Aintree

Grand National numbers

30 jumps

Total fences to be jumped

40 horses

Maximum number of runners

5ft 2in

11ft

Towering

leap

Guide to the National course

The highest fence on the course

and one of only two that is jumped

just once. With a spread of 11ft, the

horses have to jump high and long

Enclosure

Princess Royal Stand

Lord Daresbury Stand

Queen Mother Stand

Earl of Derby Stand

Lord Sefton Stand

Winner’s enclosure

Parade ring

Red Rum statue

Weighing room

A B C D E F G H I

4 miles 514 yards

Total race distance

15

16

30

Start

A

B

C

D

F E

G

H

I

The

Chair

The

Elbow

Water

Jump

AINTREE

Finish

Anatomy of

The Chair

Spruce

Birch

PVC

plastic

core

Birch

packing

The fastest-ever winning

time for the Grand National,

clocked by Mr Frisk in 1990.

minutes

47.8sec

Dukes, Counts and gentry are

I

t’s not what it was but what it is that’s important.

The Grand National is not the test it used to be

but, in its present evocation, it is something better.

It is an event that can be more warmly celebrated

and more widely viewed than anything

comparable on the globe.

In this ever-more motorised and mechanised century,

it is surprising that the National should still be going

183 years since Captain Becher emerged from the now

eponymous brook and said, “Water should never be

taken without brandy.”

We have come a long, long way from that rarefied

challenge for gallant and galloping gentry, wonderful

tales, though, they hold for us.

One of my favourites is that of the 1883

winner, Count Charles Kinsky, who won on

the mare Zoedone, whom he had bought

the year before with the £1,000 he had

won on the Cambridgeshire.

Count Kinsky was an attaché at the

Austro/Hungarian Embassy, became

Lady Randolph Churchill’s lover and so

impressed her older son that the young

Winston had a picture of Zoedone’s

triumph on his study wall at Sandhurst.

Sam Waley-Cohen is the only amateur

this afternoon and he is cut from slightly

more serious cloth than Lady Churchill’s amour.

A 39-year-old married father of two, Waley-Cohen

has built up an award-winning dental business while

pursuing an outstanding career in the saddle, winning

the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the King George VI

Chase on Long Run, finishing second in the National

on Oscar Time, and recording six victories over the

Aintree fences. He will retire after riding Noble Yeats

this afternoon, but as he lines up, not one of his rivals

will boast a better record.

Today, there is rightly little place for the doomed no-

hoper. Things have moved on since the poor old Duke

of Albuquerque was carried into the next booth to me

at Walton Hospital in 1965. He was 46 then and it was

his third ride and third fall. Incredibly, he soldiered on

for ten more years and four more disasters before the

doctors finally called a halt.

We saw things differently back then, but the public

mood was changing. The relish with which vertical falls

would be featured in both the Press and the newsreels

came to a very necessary halt in 1989, when the

amateur-ridden Brown Trix was fatally injured after

crashing into the Brook at Becher’s.

For a while, the authorities tried to soldier on with

tighter regulations for horses and riders and tried to

insist that the big drops on the fences down to Becher’s

were all part of the challenge. But, to some purists’

dismay, and to now-proven race benefit, the drops have

been removed, and while their green coating makes the

fences look different, and the first open ditch

and The Chair remain daunting obstacles,

the course takes no more jumping than

Newbury or Cheltenham.

With 40 runners and 30 fences, the

Grand National is still the most special

of all races for a jockey to win and riders

still wish each other luck beforehand.

But that’s more for the sense of occasion

than the thought that a clear round

would be a massive achievement. It

remains, as do all steeplechases, a pretty

challenging undertaking and the number of

runners adds a lottery element much prized by

owners and punters alike.

Sure, the past ten years have seen five winners for

racing juggernauts like Michael O’Leary, JP McManus

and the late Trevor Hemmings, but there have also

been One For Arthur, Pineau De Re and Auroras

Encore for one-off owners, the last a 66-1 Ilkley Moor

triumph for Sue and Harvey Smith.

This year, the big hitters are still heavily represented

with four runners each for McManus and O’Leary, but

one of the main fancies is Snow Leopardess, who not

only boasts 80-year-old Marietta Fox-Pitt as her owner

and breeder, but would be the first winner to also have

had a foal during a break in her racing career.

Further out in the betting but still worth an each-way

Brough Scott

says the Grand

National is no

longer an aloof

spectacle,

steeped in a

time long gone

Blackmore bids for more National glory on Minella Times

Brough

Scott’s top four

1 De Rasher Counter

2 Fiddlerontheroof

3 Good Boy Bobby

4 Commodore