‘My first hat-trick in Liverpool and best day in racing’
It was going to take something special to overshadow Tiger Roll’s appearance in the Betway Bowl yesterday – win, lose or draw – but as the two-time Grand National winner plodded round in fourth, beaten 92 lengths, up front, Sir Alex Ferguson was completing a treble courtesy of Clan Des Obeaux.
During his career as Manchester United manager Ferguson never won 3-0 on Merseyside, but he left Aintree last night with an armful of trophies, and after watching his silks carried to success in three Grade One races in little over an hour, he described it as his best day in 20 years of racehorse ownership.
It started well when 17-2 shot Protektorat won the SSS Super Alloys Manifesto Novice Chase keeping one of the meeting’s sub-plots, the jockeys’ title, on the boil as it meant winning jockey Harry Skelton drew level with Brian Hughes on 134.
In the next race Monmiral kept his unbeaten record intact in the Doom Bar Anniversary Hurdle before Clan Des Obeaux came home 26 lengths clear of Clondaw Castle to give Ferguson and his partners a third winner in as many races. Ferguson, who has Give Me A Copper in tomorrow’s National, said: “Clan Des Obeaux was the best horse in the race, he was fresh, not having run for three months, and the cheekpieces definitely helped him – these things matter.
“Winning’s the name of the game. It is different to when I was managing my football teams – I was in control of what was going to happen on the pitch, but I’m not in control of that [on the racetrack] as the trainer does all of that, and as an owner you hope it goes well.
“You do get the same excitement when you win big races like that as it does get you very excited.”
Having not troubled the judges at Cheltenham, Clan Des Obeaux’s win also completed a quick-fire double for Paul Nicholls and Harry Cobden.
“We’ve probably worked out how to ride him right,” Nicholls said. “When he won his King George, he was nearly well in front turning in and galloped on strongly, so I said to Harry [Cobden] today, ‘either get a lead off something like Native River, or be very, very handy’.”
Tiger Roll’s fourth proved nothing regarding his handicap mark as Aintree’s Mildmay course is chalk from cheese in comparison to the National course, which brings him alive. “He was completely out of his comfort zone,” said jockey Jack Kennedy. “He was not up to them today.” It was not all bad for Michael O’leary, though.
Abacadabras, who carried the same silks and jockey as Tiger Roll, appreciated the step up to 2½ miles in the Betway Aintree Hurdle, coming home a length and a quarter in front of Buzz.
If the Rose Paterson Randox Foxhunters, the first race over the National fences, is anything to go by, do not rule out the long shots in tomorrow’s race.
It was won by the 66-1 shot Cousin Pascal, trained locally near Nantwich by Joe O’shea and the fourth, only beaten five lengths, was a 200-1 shot, Clondaw Westie. The winning jockey James King, who saved every yard of ground by taking the brave man’s route down the inside, only spoke to O’shea, a former greyhound trainer, for the first time when he gave him the saddle.
It seems O’shea has been on a one-man mission to reduce Denise Coates’s salary. He had £250 on the winner at 60-1 with Bet365 and when he saw it had drifted out to 80-1, he went in again.
“When he came across the Melling Road there was only one winner for me – he wants another circuit, so I knew he’d stay on,” O’shea said. “I live for this day 365 days a year, and I’m a gambler. It was the only way you survive with greyhounds.”