NATIONAL TREASURE
TREVOR HEMMINGS would rather queue up for fish and chips than dine at a flash restaurant.
And if the reclusive multi-millionaire owner wins the Grand National for a record fourth time he will probably celebrate in his own modest way with a cup of tea.
Hemmings, who won with Hedgehunter in 2005, Ballabriggs in 2011 and Many Clouds four years later, said: “It’s the best race in the world so to say you’ve won one is something special.
“To have two titles is extra special and well, a third, is a minor miracle.
“The first one was the happiest day of my life. Walking to the winners’ enclosure I could hear people shouting my name and saying, ‘Well done Trevor’ but never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d win it twice more.
“The great trainer, Ginger McCain, who guided Red Rum to three BY TONY DEWHURST National wins, told me, ‘The first time I saw that Ballabriggs I knew it would win a Grand National’.
“Then there was the wonderful Many Clouds, who sadly isn’t with us anymore but carried top weight and did so perfectly.
“I’ve got Ballabriggs and Hedgehunter at home in the Isle of Man, in a lovely paddock behind my house, and every day I give them a pat on their nose and say thank you.”
Hemmings, 82, could be double handed in the Grand National with the Paul Nicholls’s trained Warriors Tale and Vicente, who fell at the first fence in last year’s race.
He said: “I was offered Warriors Tale to buy when he was a young horse and he can run in all sorts of conditions and he is a different type of horse.
“I dare not even dream that it might happen again but it would mean the world to me to win a fourth Grand National and to all the people who follow me.”
Hemmings though is much more than an owner of racehorses.
He is businessman, philanthropist, friend of the royals and owner of Championship club Preston managed by former Hamilton boss Alex Neil.
Neil, appointed last summer, has guided Preston to the fringe of the Championship play-offs with one of the youngest squads in the division.
Hemmings said: “You judge a person by what they do, not what you hear from them. I started out with nothing and I don’t think I’ve ever lost touch from where I came from.
“I worked day and night to build up my businesses and Alex is just like that.
“He’s proved to be a great appointment. He’s very intense, sensible and a genuine person and his objective in life is to climb the ladder right to the top.”