Watching big race too much of a hurdle for trainer

Don’t bother asking Laura Knight to analyse the biggest win of her training career because she didn’t see it.

Knight, the daughter of former All Black hardman Gary Knight, trained Ready Eddie to victory in yesterday’s Grand National Hurdles but she spent all but a few seconds of the more than five minutes it took him to gallop the 4200-metre race scrolling through her news feed on Faceback.

The Awapuni-based Knight, who sat still in the Grand National Stand with her head down, was too nervous to watch the race.

Instead, she glued her eyes to her phone and hoped for the best.

‘‘I did watch him jump the last fence but the rest of the time I just play on Facebook and Snapchat because I can’t watch,’’ Knight said.

Rather than wait for a notification alert of the victory, Knight did manage to nervously glance up and watch her pride and joy leap the final fence. Her fears were quickly erased when Ready Eddie leapt it cleanly and held off the challenge of Go Go Gonzo to win the $75,000 race at Riccarton.

In stark contrast, just to Knight’s left was her partner and fellow horse trainer Stephen Nickalls. He is the sort of bloke you need at every party - he knows how to celebrate.

Nickalls must have covered close to 1000m as he nervously paced up and down and around in circles as he cheered ‘‘Eddie’’ home. With 150 metres to run, he left the stand to chase Ready Eddie all the way to the winning post.

Nickalls’ celebrations are nothing new to the jumping fraternity yesterday’s effort was one of his best as he more than doubled the atmosphere for those in the Grand National Stand.

So much work and preparation goes into a Grand National campaign, and to see the satisfaction flowing from Knight and Nickalls post-race was another reminder that the harder you work, the luckier you get. ❚ Keeping the faith B6