NOT SO GRAND

While he might retain a close association with the Grand National, Peter Scudamore is not defined by it. On the eve of tomorrow’s race he is only looking forward. In a manner of speaking, he is riding two horses.

His loyalties are split between One For Arthur, the eight-year-old gelding he has helped train with Milnathortbased partner Lucinda Russell and Vieux Lion Rouge, ridden by his son, Tom. Scudamore never won the Grand National in an otherwise distinguished career that saw him earn the champion jockey title on eight occasions. But his father, Michael, triumphed in 1959 on Oxo. Three generations of Scudamores have now ridden over 3,000 winners in total between them.

Whether the Grand National still carries the same charge, Scudamore is unsure.

“The race has changed so much over the years,” he said yesterday. “The romance of the race has changed from when my father won it. Back then, it was like the FA Cup final, one of the great sporting events of the calendar for the British people.

“[It was like] The Scottish Cup final, the Derby….but the sport has changed and the whole race has changed. Some would say for the better. So I look at it as not the sporting icon it was, but it’s still very important to us.”

‘Us’ could be taken to mean two different things. It could and most probably does refer to him and Russell, with hopes high One For Arthur can become the first Scottishowned and trained horse to win the Grand National since Rubstic in 1979. But there must be a potent, complex mix of emotions brewing in Scudamore’s belly ahead

“The romance of the race has changed from when my father won it. Back then, it was like the FA Cup final, one of the great sport events”

PETER SCUDAMORE