Emmet Mullins, Sam Waley-Cohen and Mick Molloy pictured with Noble Yeats © Photo Healy Racing
On a video preview we recorded last week Danny Mullins was sweet on the chances of his cousin Emmet’s horse in the Grand National. Danny is not only a top rider but also a very good judge so I should have taken this hint and had a few quid on Noble Yeats but everything told me the horse couldn’t win.
No previous experience over the National fences. No 7-year-old had won the race for over 80 years. No amateur rider had won the race for 32 years.
Noble Yeats' chances now remind me of that 1980’s Kit Kat ad - you can’t sing, you can’t play, you look awful, you’ll go a long way!
All the stats were stacked against him, even during the early part of the race I thought he had little chance as he was out the back of the telly. In the modern Grand National horses have needed to sit closer to the pace to win but all those statistics meant nothing by the end.
Sam Waley-Cohen may have been the only amateur riding in the race but he was probably the most accomplished jockey in the field over these fences with six previous victories. He gave Noble Yeats a lovely ride and wasn’t found wanting in the latter stages when the race developed into a match between themselves and the favourite Any Second Now. Waley-Cohen fell foul of the stewards over his ride, picking up 9 days of suspensions and a £400 fine for using his whip above the permitted level and in the incorrect place, not that this will bother him much as he retired from race riding after the victory.
Winning the Grand National is a dream that almost all owners must aspire to but only a very privileged few will ever experience. Winning the National has become big business. The first four horses home this year were all owned by the mega-rich - Robert Waley-Cohen, JP McManus, Michael O’Leary and Richard Kelvin-Hughes - and that is a trend one that is set to continue.
The bookies as usual were the biggest winners on the day. Ted Walsh’s runner-up Any Second Now would have cost them plenty but most firms reported little or no interest among the public for the winner.
One of the biggest talking points since the race has been the tragic death of two horses, Discorama and Eclair Surf. This is the highest number of fatalities in the race since 2012 but was made all the more upsetting as initial bulletins from Aintree Racecourse suggested that all 40 runners had survived.
Aside from the PR blunder that this miscommunication caused, the bigger question for the sport is whether these levels of fatalities are acceptable and justifiable? The Grand National is the ultimate showcase for the sport when for one day a year the eyes of the world are on horse racing. The vast majority tuning in on TV have no concept of the amount of hard work that goes on behind the scenes to get these horses to the point where they can compete in a Grand National. They also have no understanding of how hard these losses are felt by those closest to the horses, but ultimately there’s no way of getting away from the fact that horses dying in races is the worst possible PR for the sport.
Last week we saw huge crowds in attendance at midweek meetings at Leopardstown and Limerick as Student Race Days once again proved to be a real cash cow for the racecourses.
The students embrace the opportunity to get all dressed up and let their hair down before exam season kicks into gear in the coming weeks and It’s hard to knock these novelty days for the industry as they’re certainly significant earners for the individual tracks.
Unfortunately, these Student Race Days expose a more inherent problem for the sport in that the vast majority of those in attendance don’t come back, or at least not on a regular basis. The marketing departments of Horse Racing Ireland and the individual racecourses have been striving to attract a younger audience to racing for years but outside of the very biggest days (and dedicated student days) there are very few young people turning up.
Years ago we used to laugh at the UK all-weather tracks with their two men and a dog in attendance as they provided betting fodder for the bookmaker shops and television. TV coverage is certainly a double edged sword for the industry. It helps showcase the big days to a massive audience but the minor days suffer as more and more punters get into the habit of staying at home (myself included).
Ladies Days are the one other guaranteed win for the racecourses and throughout the summer months almost every track will add that moniker to a bog standard day’s racing. Maybe the marketeers need to come up with more such novelty events to keep those turnstiles clicking.
