WHAT A WAY TO GO , SAM
Amateur Waley-Cohen wins National in his last race on 50-1 Noble Yeats
WHAT a way to go out. Sam Waley-Cohen announced on Thursday that the Randox Grand National would be his last ever ride and he went out with an emotionally charged Aintree victory on 50-1 shot Noble Yeats, six days before his 40th birthday.
It is the sort of final sporting hurrah any professional sportsman would dream of but Waley-Cohen pulled it off as an amateur rider, the first to win the £1million race since Marcus Armytage on Mr Frisk in 1990.
Tomorrow morning he will be on Zoom calls dealing with the daily business of running his company Portman Dental Care, which has 200 practices in five countries and employs 4,000 people. But in the years to come he will be able to reflect on a career packed with the sort of success to make most in the paid ranks envious.
That includes two wins in the King George VI Chase as well as the 2011 Cheltenham Gold Cup on Long Run, who like Noble Yeats is owned by Waley-Cohen’s father Robert.
Sam’s two-and-a-quarter-length win from 15-2 favourite Any Second Now was a first for a seven-year-old since Bogskar won in 1940 and was also another massive feather in the cap of the gelding’s young Irish trainer Emmet Mullins, who was having his first runner in the race and only third at Aintree.
But yesterday’s drama played out in front of a capacity 70,000 crowd in the 174th running of the race was all about the jockey, who was having his 10th ride in the race and who finished second on Oscar Time in 2011.
Inspiring Sam throughout his career has been the memory of his late brother Thomas, who died of cancer aged 20 in 2004. His initials are stitched into Sam’s saddle.
Sam said: ‘When you love someone and lose them when you are young, you try to make the most of life, appreciate it and try to approach things with an open heart, and try to put a lot of energy into every day because you don’t know if it will be your last.
‘It has definitely made me want to make the most of my opportunities and thanks to dad I have had incredible opportunities.’
Waley-Cohen definitely did that yesterday, working his way into contention gradually after Noble Yeats did not get the start he wanted and found the early tempo too hot.
He gradually started picking off rivals, plotting a brave route down the inside. As they crossed the Melling Road with half a mile to go, Noble Yeats was on the tail of three fellow Irish pacesetters — Longhouse Poet (eventually sixth), Freewheelin Dylan (seventh) and Coko Beach (eighth) — going ominously well.
By the last fence, eventual third Delta Work had stayed on to challenge only to run out of fuel, leaving a dash to the finish between Noble Yeats and last year’s third Any Second Now. It was in the balance until the elbow 150 yards from the line when Noble Yeats forged clear.
Yesterday was only the third time that Waley-Cohen had sat on Noble Yeats. The second was when the gelding was unplaced at last month’s Cheltenham Festival. He said that learning experience had been vital and he had recommended cheekpieces to sharpen Noble Yeats’s concentration.
Waley-Cohen said: ‘I pulled him out and asked him, he gave me way more than I expected. I know he’s got plenty of toe, so as soon as he picked up, I thought, “he’s gone — he’s got this’’.’
Waley-Cohen’s Aintree memories stretch back to having ice creams at the track as youngster. His father also bought him a silk riding cap — red with white polka dots in the colours of regular National runner Auntie Dot — which he wore at Pony Club.
Yesterday his own children — Max, 9, Scarlett, 7, and Zander, 2 — were with him on the winner’s podium along with wife Bella. It was an emotional ocean with father Robert welling up.
But the one thing Waley-Cohen was adamant about was that winning the world’s most famous steeplechase was not going to change his mind about retiring.
‘That would be fool’s gold,’ he said. ‘I have made up my mind. I have had the dream ride. I have always wanted to ride for the love of it. One of the reasons I wanted to stop now was when you don’t want to go every day and enjoy every race you should stop.
‘When you a ride like that and it goes as well as it did it is wise to stick to what you said.’
Perhaps best-placed to appreciate how Sam and his father felt was the man who they had beaten — Ted Walsh, trainer of Any Second Now.
He won the race in 2000 with Papillon ridden by son Ruby.
Walsh said: ‘It’s wonderful for them and hard luck for us — it was 20 lengths back to the third.’
It was an Irish 1-2-3 with Santini the first British horse home in fourth. The chances of last year’s hero Rachael Blackmore ended at the ninth fence when her mount Minella Times was hampered and brought down.
There was a sting in the tale for Waley-Cohen. He received a nineday ban and was fined £400 for using his whip too much after the final fence.
But that will be a quickly forgotten footnote to day that will live long in his and his family’s memory.