Light shines so brightly for Betsy
FOR a good four miles, South Wales, sporting romantics and scriptwriters dared to dream.
That those dreams were dashed by the might of the most powerful trainer and owner in National Hunt racing – and others from Ireland – did not matter.
Kitty’s Light threatened to produce the most heart-warming Grand National win since cancer survivor Bob Champion triumphed on Aldaniti 43 years ago.
A horse that cost a meagre five grand looked as though he might give trainer Christian Williams a victory that would have been worth a princely sum but would actually have been priceless.
Kitty’s Light was the public’s horse in this instalment of the world’s greatest race, having been an inspiration and a tonic for the Williams family, whose six-year-old daughter Betsy is battling leukaemia. And when I Am Maximus and Paul Townend, in those green and gold colours of multi-millionaire JP Mcmanus, was greeted by all-conquering Willie Mullins in a raucous Aintree winners’ enclosure, a poignant scene was being played out no more than 100 yards away.
In a quiet cooling-down area, jockey Jack Tudor dismounted from Kitty’s Light and Betsy gave the horse a loving pat.
She told anyone who would listen that she was very proud.
“It was great, wonderful,” said Williams, who trains 25 horses on a beach between Ogmore and Porthcawl in South Wales.
“The horse tried its heart out and the children cheered him on.” And that was all that 41-year-old Williams had asked for.
Before the tapes went up, the ex-jockey said: “It’s a privilege to have him. Just think, wouldn’t it be wonderful if he is still travelling at the second last and is in the first six?”
That is exactly what happened, with Kitty’s Light battling on to finish fifth, the highest-placed British finisher behind the four horses that continued the Irish domination of this sport.
In history, fifth-placed horses do not normally warrant a mention in the Grand National annals. This one does.
And it did not matter that Kitty’s Light finished fifth, that the fairytale did not have a perfect ending. It would have been nice but it was still a fairytale to the Williams family.
This is what the Grand National is all about. Daring to dream, a showcase of what these horses mean to the people who look after them, care for them, love them.