OUR DROSS REHEARSAL!
How Arthur turned it all around
Almost every aspect of one For Arthur’s training programme had been thoroughly documented on our stable website by my partner lucinda Russell — except one.
When we had jumped saturday’s Grand National winner over our specially constructed Aintree fence to give experience of the obstacles he was about to jump, it had not gone well. It was not a video lucinda put on Facebook!
Badgers Foot, a brilliant old point-to-pointer who has been a schooling master to most of our young jockeys, jumped them brilliantly.
But Arthur stood off too far on take-off and was not as slick as a potential Grand National winner should be. I was not particularly worried and I was hoping that, in a positive way, Arthur’s experience would make him respect the Aintree fences more.
In the end it went like a dream. Arthur and jockey Derek Fox never really put a foot wrong.
the reason I had felt confident when I tipped him to Sportsmail readers on saturday was that, like the race, his training programme could not have gone better. the work I was seeing on the gallops suggested he had improved significantly since he won at Warwick in January. I never won the race as a jockey and, despite some suggestions, would not have swapped any of my eight Champion Jockey titles even for a win in the biggest race in the racing year.
But I had been involved in the training of two previous winners — Earth summit and Bindaree — as assistant trainer to my friend Nigel twiston-Davies. the only similarity from saturday I can draw is that in Earth summit’s season, we had had a really poor run of form for the stable up until Christmas before a change of feed for the horses eventually transformed it. Exactly the same happened with our stable. It was a plus for Arthur that the string’s form this month has been the best for the entire season. saturday’s win was great for our No1 jockey Derek Fox. He took over that role after Peter Buchanan retired at the end of last season. Derek’s 24 and still at the start of his career. He is full of enthusiasm and I told him we would back him but he would also have to prove himself. Back then, one For Arthur was not even his ride. Derek knew that some of our better horses would be ridden by my more experienced son tom.
But tom was unavailable when Arthur made his seasonal debut at Kelso in october, Derek rode him, won and the ride was his.
Derek breaking his wrist last month was a worry. Initially, there was a big chance he would not make it back.
I can reveal we had champion jockey Richard Johnson on standby until last monday when Derek finally received his medical clearance.
my late father michael won the 1959 Grand National with oxo. I am not superstitious usually but I did wear one of his old ties on saturday to make sure some winning scudamore DNA was at Aintree.
I think my epitaph will be: ‘Not a bad jockey, brilliant assistant trainer.’ Flagged up: Scu in Saturday’s Mail