NATIONAL TREASURE
It was a dream when Rachael won... now I hope my dad does same this year
EVEN by the rigorous standards it has set itself, Saturday’s Randox Grand National has a tough act to follow.
Twelve months ago, the great race served up arguably the greatest story of its 183-year history as Rachael Blackmore triumphed aboard Minella Times.
“It felt really surreal for an hour afterwards,” recalled Katie Walsh of the first Grand National victory by a woman rider.
“You wondered, ‘Did that just happen. Has Rachael just won the National?’
“Because of Covid, there was a handful of Irish people watching the race in the stand just beyond the winning post.
“I thought to myself,
‘God, we’ve just witnessed history!’
“People say,
‘Where were you when such-andsuch happened?’ We were there. We saw it with our own eyes.”
Walsh’s perspective on the 2021 Grand National is unique, thanks to the third place achieved by Seabass nine years earlier.
An amateur riding career that included three victories at the Cheltenham Festival ended at the Punchestown Festival in 2018, with Walsh still holding the highest National finishing position posted by a woman jockey.
Walsh, whose father Ted and brother Ruby had captured the 2000 running with Papillon, recounted: “The only thing that wasn’t a fairytale was that Seabass didn’t win, but it was a great couple of weeks.
“There was all the razzmatazz around the track that a female rider was riding him, and I got a dream run round.
“When I crossed the Melling Road, I thought, ‘This is going to happen! If this horse stays, I win!’
“It was an unbelievable feeling that I might win the Grand National, and I did feel it for a second.
“But last year, never did I think, ‘Rachael’s taken my record’. I felt very lucky and very privileged to see it.
“I got to give her a hug and say,
‘Well done!’ To have the season she’d had – to be the leading rider at Cheltenham and then to win the race of all races. Incredible.”
It’s not only on
Blackmore’s account that Walsh could be forgiven for recalling the race with mixed emotions.
Her father’s Any Second Now was brought to a near standstill by Double Shuffle’s fall at the 12th fence – but came home strongly to take third behind Minella Times.
Any Second Now returns to Merseyside as the 8-1 market leader for this year’s race after a win over fences in the Bobbyjo Chase at Fairyhouse in February. Walsh partners the 10-year-old in exercise at her father’s Co Kildare stable and she added: “I know when he’s going well and when he’s not going well, and he’s in good nick.
“We feel lucky to be going back with him again... and what will be, will be.
“You don’t have to be Willie Mullins, Paul Nicholls, Nicky Henderson or Gordon Elliott.
“Whoever wins, there’s always a great story behind it.” ■■Tickets are still available for the Randox Grand National Festival (starts Thursday) at www. thejockeyclub.co.uk/aintree