CORNER CALLS THE ’TOON AT 18/1
NO Grand National, no Grand National-winning jockey.
Circumstance has decreed that no rider woke this morning with a sore head and a fuzzy recollection of jumping 30 fences en route to glory in the world’s most famous steeplechase.
Imagine the same in 1981. Racing’s own version of It’s A Wonderful Life – Aldaniti and Bob Champion – erased from history.
And no Bob Champion Cancer Trust, which has now raised nearly £15million to fight the disease whose ‘worst’ ultimately wasn’t enough to beat Champion, after his July 1979 testicular cancer diagnosis had signalled the start of the fight.
“People think it was me who set it up, but it wasn’t – it was the people in this country,” said Champion, who 39 years ago yesterday partnered the Josh Gifford-trained Aldaniti to a four-length win over Spartan Missile at 10-1.
“When I won the National, people sent their winnings to me, care of the Royal Marsden, where I had received chemotherapy.
“There was quite a lot of money sent in, and Nick Embiricos, Aldaniti’s owner, and Professor Peckham, who was my doctor at the Marsden, said,
‘We’ve got to do something with it.
“They didn’t know what to do with it in the first place.
“But when it kept coming in, Nick, the professor and myself thought, ‘We’d better be professional about it.’
“And it just went on from there.”
Champion’s firm conviction that
Aldaniti had what it took to win a National helped him through a harrowing 20-month struggle. He was
– were fed into a computer. Mr Babbage did the rest, with bookmakers agreeing to donate all profits to NHS Charities Together, the umbrella organisation representing more than 140 National Health
Service charities.
In other words, even if you lost, you still won. To help us, we had two pundits in self-isolation. ITV Racing’s Alice Plunkett picked course specialist Walk In The Mill to deny 5/1 favourite
Tiger Roll, successful in two real-life Nationals and first and second in the last two cartoon runnings. originally given eight months to – but it was the Embiricos family live by doctors. Now 71, he who insisted, ‘Bob said he’d win recalled: “I remember lying in a National one day, we’ll give him hospital, near death sometimes, a chance’. and thinking, ‘I want to get over “I was in hospital at the time this and ride Aldaniti’. and Aldaniti was my inspiration.
“I remember winning the Silver “The race itself didn’t really go Fox Handicap Chase at Leicester to plan on the day. on him and I got off and said to “He overjumped the first and the owners and the guv’nor, ‘He’ll was lucky to get away with it. win a National one day’. “But when he stood off even
“It was hard getting back, further at the second and because the drugs had damaged dropped his hind legs in the about 40 per cent of my lung fence, that made the old horse capacity and it was hard to think. breathe. “From that moment, he was a
“I went out to the joy to ride.”
States because the The story of the weather was so man and horse who cold in England beat the odds is and I couldn’t Grand National breath at all here. folklore, told in the
“I used to go running, ride out 1984 film Champions, with John about 10 horses, play tennis... Hurt playing the triumphant God knows what. jockey.
“I just had to keep at it.” Champion, awarded the MBE But while Champion was for his unstinting charity work, fighting his fight, Aldaniti has himself proved a beacon of suffered a serious leg injury at hope and inspiration to millions Sandown Park in November of cancer sufferers.
1979. The dream, it seemed, was And he hopes his story will over. also help those facing uncertain
“The vets wanted to put him times through the coronavirus down when he broke down so pandemic. badly at Sandown – they gave That Covid-19 has put paid to him no chance of coming back major sporting events, including the 2020 Grand National, is a mere irritation beside the turmoil it threatens to wreak on the lives of families the world over.
“We are in very uncertain times, and things are tough for everyone at the moment,” observed Champion.
“But one thing I learned is that the human spirit will fight to the last.
“In hospital, I was close to giving up a couple of times.
“But I went and had a look round the kids’ ward.
“I thought, ‘If they can go through with it, why can’t I?’
“And it worked out in the end.”
Richard Pitman, cruelly denied National glory himself in 1973 when Red Rum swept past a leg-weary Crisp to write the first chapter of his Aintree legend, went for Tiger Roll to win again.
And so to the action, called by the ice-cool Stewart Machin.
Tiger Roll gave his backers something to shout about when going on under a virtual Davy Russell with four of the 30 fences to jump.
But was soon passed by 66/1 outsider Aso. An upset – and with it a bumper NHS windfall – looked on the cards, only for Aso and Charlie Deutsch to crash out at the second-last, leaving 18/1 chance Potters Corner – winner of the real-life Welsh National last December – to score for Vale of Glamorgan handler Christian Williams, teenage jockey Jack Tudor, and connections, including partowner, Wales rugby legend Jonathan Davies. No injuries to horse or rider, and no whip bans. Just 30 minutes of harmless entertainment, the outcome of which will be to send funds to a cause that benefits us all. What’s not to like?