Captain Marvel
The Borders-based team aiming for more Scottish glory in Grand National
SPRING is a very busy time for Stuart Coltherd. There is 600 acres to farm and more than 100 ewes about to start lambing. That is not any easier when snow is still arriving and giving Easter a Christmas card feel at your Scottish Border base.
Then, on top of all that, there is a £1million Randox Health Grand National to try to win with the star horse among your 22-strong string. No wonder Coltherd, 51, said with a degree of understatement: ‘It’s all hands on deck!’
It certainly will be if his nine-year-old gelding Captain Redbeard, who will be ridden by Coltherd’s 19-year-old son Sam and lead up by daughter Amy, 20, can win Saturday’s race at Aintree.
In a jump racing world increasingly dominated by the big stables and in the aftermath of a Cheltenham Festival full of Irish winners, the odds may seem stacked against the small family operation and Captain Redbeard, far longer than the 40-1 most bookmakers are quoting.
But that would be to forget the Grand National’s fierce unpredictability and ignore the rapid rise through the ranks this season of a horse Coltherd believes is the best he has ever trained.
Coltherd has also confounded the odds at Aintree before. In 2013, he saddled Tartan Snow to win the Foxhunters’ Chase, the race for amateur jockeys over the famous Grand National fences, at 100-1.
‘That was a hell of a day,’ said Coltherd. ‘We never thought he was a 100-1 shot, we thought he was better than that. It was after that I thought you should never be frightened to go for some of these races. You have to have a little bit of faith in your own judgment, take the chance and go for it.’
Captain Redbeard finished sixth in the Grand Sefton Chase at Aintree in December when a horse fell in front of him four out and stopped him in his tracks.
But going for the National had not crossed Coltherd’s mind at that stage.
He was regarded as a horse for far shorter distances than the National’s four-mile, two-furlong marathon. But fate, in the guise of this winter’s bad weather, intervened, reduced racing opportunities and forced the trainer to take a chance.
Coltherd said: ‘The snow and frost never seem to have stopped. We had well over a foot of snow at one time. We are about 850ft above sea level. If you see snow on the hills, it is usually snow with us.
‘We always thought Captain Redbeard was a horse better over two-mile five furlongs or two-mile six furlongs and on better ground. It’s just there weren’t that many races for him.
‘It was just luck that we entered him in the Tommy Whittle Chase at Haydock over three miles on heavy ground. The day before I did think, “Why are we going there? He’ll never do anything in that” — but he won quite easily.
‘He went up in the handicap and ran a good race over three and a quarter miles back at Haydock in the Peter Marsh Chase. It was then we decided to go for the National.’
That prompted son Sam, who has played his part in calming the initially wayward Captain Redbeard and recalls an effortless first win on him at an Alnwick point-to-point in March 2015, to make an urgent call to the BHA to make sure he was eligible to ride.
Sam, who has ridden 31 winners under rules and whose only other ride over the Aintree fences was finishing eighth on Ockey De Neulliac in the 2016 Foxhunters’ Chase, said: ‘I was straight on the phone — I even rang them twice just reassure myself.’
Coltherd Snr’s original contact with horses had nothing to do with racing, just rounding up the sheep before quad bikes — ‘They’re much quicker’ — came along. But that led to show jumping and then point-to-pointing and the racing bug was sown. His first winner, £700 buy Murder Moss, who won
at Hexham in 1999, is still grazing in a field on his Selkirkshire farm at 32.
Coltherd bought Captain Redbeard off his original owner — ‘I paid as much as I could afford at the time but I wanted to keep him’ — and patiently brought him through the ranks.
Initial attempts to sell the gelding proved fruitless. That would not be the case now. ‘I tried to sell him so many times to different owners, I couldn’t get anyone to buy him, so I just kept him myself’, he said. ‘I have had a couple of people phone up since it was decided he was going for the National but I thought, “I’ve had him this long so why sell now”? It has taken a bit of pressure off owning him myself as well.’
Twelve months ago, Lucinda Russell-trained One For Arthur became only the second Scottishtrained Grand National winner. Coltherd said: ‘Lucinda has always given me plenty of encouragement and support and said, given what Captain Redbeard has done, I should go for the National.
‘It’s a massive day. We are lucky to find a horse as good as him. You can pay all the money in the world but finding them is the hard thing.’
For Sam, who is now based with trainer Sue Smith and her husband Harvey, it will be the first time he has attended a Grand National.
He watched One For Arthur’s win from home but has viewed a re-run a few times and plans to get advice from his jockey Derek Fox.
Sam will also speak to his friend and Scottish neighbour Ryan Mania, who won the 2013 National on Auroras Encore, and his coach, former jockey Brian Harding.
‘This is the biggest ride I’ve ever had and probably will be for a while after it,’ said Sam. ‘Everyone is getting excited at home. We might only be a small operation but it is a big operation for us. Jeez, I can’t wait.’
Captain Redbeard is not the only horse representing Scotland. See you at mid night, who was third in the 2016 Scottish National, represents Sandy Thomson, who trains near Kelso.
Thomson played rugby union before he became a trainer, playing for Kelso and Scotland B. He also faced New Zealand and Australian teams while representing South of Scotland.