From coin toss all the way to Aintree
DID YOU hear the one about the two Wexford trainers who tossed a coin to decide ownership of a horse which later went on to win the Aintree Grand National? And did you hear about the point-to-point race at Lingstown, Tomhaggard, where the horses that finished first and third ended up being winner and fourth in the same National three and half years later?
It all sounds like fantasy but it is all true! The horse they tossed for was One for Arthur, hero of the hour for jockey Derek Fox and trainer Lucinda Russell on Saturday.
Trainers Liam Kenny, Ballydarragh, Craanford, and Seán Thomas Doyle, Monbeg, Ballindaggin, are friends, though often rivals on the point-to-point tracks. They were at the Derby sale five years ago and both were interested in the same horse. They agreed not to bid against each other, and Doyle secured the horse for a little over €30,000.
They agreed to toss for ownership, and the coin came down for Kenny, who took One For Arthur into training for his regular patron, Gorey hotelier, Paddy Redmond. The horse had five runs for Kenny in 2013 before eventually getting his head in front, after which he was sold on to agent Tom Malone for trainer Lucinda Russell for £60,000 at the December Cheltenham sales. A nice profit all round!
On October 5, 2013, at Castletowngeoghegan, Co. Westmeath, Seán Doyle had got a bit of his own back for losing the toss when his Sleepy Eye won, with One For Arthur back in fifth under Harley Dunne.
Two weeks later at Ballinaboola (November 10), Jamie Codd won on Did You Know for former Kilkenny hurler, Kieran Purcell, but an improving One for Arthur was second under Barry O’Neill.
At Lingstown on November 24, O’Neill and ‘Arthur’ won, beating Liz Doyle’s Wexfordian into second, and third was Blaklion for Colin McKeever, which finished fourth in Saturday’s National.
Who would have believed it, and ‘Arthur’ really turned the tables in a big way on Codd for that Ballinaboola beating!
Liam Kenny has been having a lean time of it for the past couple of years because of bug problems in his yard, but he said it was a great thrill to see his former inmate winning the big one.
He told me on Sunday as he prepared to go to his local Island Hunt meeting at Courtown: ‘One For Arthur was a grand horse; he was never the fastest but he was a savage good jumper’.
Here’s hoping this signals a improvement in luck for Kenny who has had over 80 point-to-point winners in the past ten years, and has had six this season.