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It would have been tragic whichever horse suffered a fatal injury, but from the image of racing/PR terms it will have done a lot of damage. I imagine many non-racing One Show viewers will have been looking forward to tuning in next week for an ‘after the race’ update on McKelvey, and this is the worst possible outcome.
Apparently the injury occurred while he was running loose.
Many commiserations to the Bowens and all his connections.
I can vaguely remember Nationals from the late 70s, although my clearest memory of Red Rum isn’t of him winning, it’s of him being pulled out on the eve of the ’78 race and subsequently being retired.
The first one I can remember watching avidly was the ’81 National. My non-racing mum and I watched it together – I desperately wanted Spartan Missile to win, while she had Aldaniti in her office sweep. The only time I’ve made it to Aintree in person was in ’88 when Little Polveir won.
I rarely bet in any race bar the National, and then I become an e/w mug punter picking out two or three, so my record is understandably mixed. The first winner I ever backed was West Tip, then Party Politics six years later. I then had a barren run with only a couple of places (Suny Bay stands out) but no winners until hitting the mark again with Monty’s Pass in 2003. Thanks to my slight Ruby fetish, I backed Hedgehunter in 2005 and have been backing him ever since, including this year (among others) for pure sentimental value.
Tuffers’ post sums up for me why the National will always be a special race. Good luck to everyone’s selections this afternoon, and let’s hope they all come back safe and sound.
1. Comply Or Die
2. Bewleys Berry
3. Philson Run
4. D’Argent
5. Hedgehunter
6. Butler’s CabinI’ll stop there before I jinx the entire field.
McGraths commentaries leave a lot to be desired.
I don’t dislike the guy, but he’s in decline as a commentator these days. Yesterday any horse that brushed a fence or hurdle with the equine equivalent of a fingernail was greeted with "Oooh, he rapped that one hard!"
reet hard – could you (or anyone else) expand on Ruby Walsh’s interview? I missed it; was he really in tears?
I didn’t see him interviewed, but when they announced the result of the photograph he lowered his head and clearly wiped his eyes. He’d already taken his goggles down several minutes earlier, so it did seem as though he was momentarily in tears rather than just wiping away sweat or whatever.
A jumps horse only has a realistic racing life of around 5-6 years
And running a horse too quickly after an especially hard race can shorten that lifespan considerably. Say a horse is used to X number of weeks between its races and is trained to peak in time for a particular race which in the event proves fairly gruelling, more so than it is accustomed to. For it then to have an ‘afterthought’ race thrown at it after a shorter timescale than its usual ‘recovery’ period must have a detrimental effect on its physical (and possibly mental) state.
They aren’t pets but they aren’t machines either.
Having said that, I agree that if KS had jumped the second last he would have won. But still, at what cost? I have no doubt that if he’d won the Gold Cup doing handsprings and sewn up the OoM at Cheltenham, there wouldn’t have been a cat in hell’s chance of him running today. Who had the easier race in the GC? Denman. But he’s already been put away for the season, despite PN’s assertions that if horses are ‘fit and well’ they should be running.
Could do without the "cheering crowd" noises in the background long after the race has finished though….
And the ‘galloping hoofbeats’ which make it sound as though every race is being run along the Melling Road, even in Red-Marauder-ish conditions.
What would you rather back at 5/1 – Cloudy Lane in the National or Denman in the Hennessy…?
Thisthatandtother would probably never have won, but the post-race analysts on the BBC were too busy concentrating on Josh G’s impressive recovery on Christy Beamish at Becher’s to spot that TTT was quite badly hampered at the same fence by the faller on the outside, just as Nick Scholfield was trying to improve his position. It knocked him back through the field and it took the horse a while to recover any sort of momentum so to run on through beaten horses into fifth was quite creditable under the circumstances.
Let’s hope the old boy has a long and happy retirement, and well done to the winner and the second for making a great race of it.
Now I make no secret of the fact that I would follow Ruby over a cliff, but my view of the Nicholls interview was that he was taking the blame for something that wasn’t entirely of his making. A couple of his comments hinted that he thought Ruby had taken his ‘ride him positive’ comments a bit too literally, and also Ruby is experienced enough to change the pre-agreed tactics if the race isn’t panning out to suit – he has done so successfully (Master Minded in the Game Spirit comes to mind) without the trainer having any complaints.
However, having said that, I think that Kauto would still have won if he hadn’t decided to take the 2nd last with him and knocked the stuffing out of himself, and I don’t think Ruby can entirely take the blame for that. KS’s ‘old’ errors tended to be when Ruby sat still, but watching the replay, he clearly tries to make KS’s mind up for him and the horse just lifts off out of his hands.
Without the hard race in the Gold Cup I think he would have won, and I hope chasing the Order of Merit hasn’t finished him off for good (I remember Azertyuiop).
I think what you should be saying is that if he goes through next season unbeaten, manages to actually give lumps of weight away in a handicap and win, and beat Denman in the Gold Cup then, and only then, can you argue he is a better horse than Denman and ran below form in the 2008 Gold Cup.
What if Findlay & Barber let Denman take KS on in the Betfair and/or King George and KS beat him in whichever/both? Could we argue that KS is better than Denman then? Would those races ‘not count’ somehow because they’re not the Gold Cup? Or could we agree that Kauto Star is quicker than Denman but Denman stays further than KS?
After this year’s GC, I don’t think KS will ever beat Denman over 3m2f at Cheltenham on soft ground (and I say that as someone who really hoped KS could win). Those conditions test his stamina to its absolute limit and Denman is a true stayer. What I’d love to see now is a clash at 3m.
Let’s face it, if Ruby had got off Hedgehunter for Turko, or picked any of the younger improvers of whom he had the choice who might (arguably) give him an increased chance of winning than the 12yo top-weight, MP would have started a thread bemoaning his lack of loyalty, so the poor guy can’t win.
Did he nick your milk when you were at school or something, MP?
I used to follow Henry Cecil’s yard during the Cauthen years so Oh So Sharp, Indian Skimmer and Diminuendo were great favourites.
Also a fan of Pebbles, Al Bahathri, Triptych, Soba, Habibti, Salsabil, Marwell and Soviet Song.
I’m sure I’ve forgotten a couple.
It matters if you follow National trends. It’s nearly 70 years since a horse younger than eight won the race; nothing has won carrying more than 11-1 since Red Rum in 1977 and no French-bred has ever won.
Stats are there to be broken but Turko would have to be a lot more special than he’s shown himself to be so far to win under 11-10 as a six-year-old, especially having had a fairly hard race in the Ryanair LTO.
Fiddling The Facts is another classy mare to have produced some decent stock this season.
As per his normal practice, Robert Thornton wasn’t interviewed until after he’d dismounted and spoken to connections. IIRC the C4 interviewer(s) walked across the paddock with him as he went to weigh in post-race.