‘He’s best horse in our hearts & the public’s too’
INDOMITABLE SPIRIT won the day as Corach Rambler galloped to glory in the Grand National, staged in defiance of a course invasion by animal rights activists.
Victory for the 8-1 favourite was the second in six years for the training partnership of Lucinda Russell and Peter Scudamore – the pair triumphed with One For Arthur in 2017 – and for jockey Derek Fox, having his first ride back from a troublesome shoulder injury.
Protest group Animal Rising had vowed to prevent the 175th running of the National from taking place, and the race was delayed by nearly 15 minutes after demonstrators (right) penetrated a heightened security presence to attach themselves to the second fence and railings by the Canal Turn.
But Sligo-born jockey Fox kept his head while many around him at lost theirs, sending his mount to the front at the second-last fence (clearing The Chair, above) and repelling the late thrust of Vanillier by two-anda-quarter lengths, with Gaillard Du Mensil third and defending champion Noble Yeats in fourth.
There was to be no second success for 2021 National heroine Rachael Blackmore, whose gambled-on mount Ain’t That A Shame came home last of the 17 finishers, while the final ride of Davy Russell’s storied career ended at the first fence aboard Galvin. The obstacle saw Hill Sixteen take a fatal fall.
“Those guys that went out to protest on the course – they think it’s about horse welfare,” said Perthshire-based Russell.
“But I would say to them, ‘Come and see how the horses are kept. Look at our Facebook page to see how these horses are looked after.’
“It’s so important they understand that we care for them every inch of the way.”
A repeat win at last month’s Cheltenham Festival had propelled Corach Rambler to the head of the National market, and Russell added: “He has now got greatness and it’s what he deserves.
“Corach Rambler, in our hearts, is the best horse – and, in the public’s hearts, he is as well.”
A fall at Wetherby nine days earlier had left Fox nursing a shoulder injury that threatened to rule him out of taking the mount, with champion jockey Brian Hughes on standby. “I banged my shoulder – I was worried all week because I really thought this horse could do it today,” said the rider, who sat out the first two days of the Grand National meeting in order to guarantee his fitness for the ride that mattered most. “He jumped and travelled the whole way. He always felt like he was enjoying himself.”
The winning horse carried the purple-and-yellow silks of The Ramblers, a seven-strong syndicate who bought the nineyear-old – they were strangers at the time of the purchase – during the COVID-19 lockdown of 2020.
One of their number, 21-year-old Heriot Watt University student Cameron Sword, said: “He is a wonderful horse – our hero – and he gave us that chance to dream.”
One For Arthur succumbed to colic in retirement at the age of 14 last month and an emotional Russell smiled: “We scattered Arthur’s ashes on the finishing line. Now He’s passed the baton on to ‘Corach’.”