The day terror struck Aintree
extend Mark Casse’s winning streak in another trappy claimer.
The filly recorded a clear personal best when chasing home the useful
over course and distance and there should be plenty more to come from this pacey four-year-old.
The trainer can double up thanks to
Crumb Bun
STRATEGIES
Strategies.
Romance
PROVEN
(10.13). The colt built on some sterling efforts in Grade 1 company last term when routing here a month ago and that is unlikely to be the limit of this smart miler’s ability.
(9.41) can claim another fascinating race with a repeat of his excellent second to
Shamrocket
SHAMROCKET
Proven
Amador Sanchez’s
CHICLET’S DREAM
(11.16) is well worth punting in the lucky last.
Useful for Chad Brown, the mare absolutely bolted up from
here on debut for her new connections.
The five-year-old is still unexposed for her current handler and can fol low up under the skilled Hector Berrios.
Regal
Fellow jockey Jamie Osborne headed for the pub on the Saturday evening still dressed in his silks and riding clobber.
Aintree may have been empty yesterday as the coronavirus claimed the Grand National, with Potters Corner winning the virtual staging at odds of 18-1.
But a different kind of scare – yet just as frightening – caused the place to be evacuated 23 years ago, deserted again when the big race was due to be run.
Only this wasn’t a health scare. It was a bomb scare.
Back in 1997, just like yesterday, there was also no National hero to celebrate at the end of the day.
Instead, punters, trainers and horses were on the streets, put up in nearby houses after 60,000 streamed out less than an hour before the race was due to begin.
As usual, Aintree was buzzing at the start of the afternoon.
The big one was due off at 3.45pm and the atmosphere was electric but just prior to 2.50pm, it turned dark. Very dark.
News filtered through the police frequencies of a bomb threat which had been made by the IRA.
The call was made via telephone to Aintree University Hospital in Fazakerley and three minutes later a second was made via telephone to the police’s control room in for enough alcohol to forget. Osborne headed for the Adelphi Hotel in the blue and white silks of Suny Bay’s owners and recalled a doorman asking: “Mate, have you come straight from work?”
It summed up the spirit as he continued: “When they took us out of the weighing room, we thought it was a fire drill and we all expected to be going back in shortly afterwards before going out to ride in the National.
“So there was no preparation for what happened. We didn’t know we wouldn’t be let back in for another 24 hours, so there we all were in our britches and boots heading into Liverpool. It made the night quite interesting.
“We all went to the Adelphi Hotel and the foyer was like a scene from the Blitz. They were putting up temporary dormitories, dining rooms and things like that.
“It wasn’t just the jockeys and trainers, a lot of the general public were there as well as they weren’t allowed to move their cars from the racecourse. There was a lot of people with nowhere to go.”
In the end, though, the Grand National won. The people made it happen. Restaged 48 hours later with the public admitted on the Monday for free, 20,000 turned up to see Lord Gyllene go first past the post.
Jockey Tony Dobbin had triumphed. And so had the sport over the terrorists.