So much of what I knew from when I was young seems to have been replaced by a convenient replica these days. A real fire is a fabulous generator of heat and homeliness but it's also a pain in the hole to clean it when it goes out. Once upon a time, mothers (mostly) and fathers had to get up in the morning and spend an hour preparing and lighting the fire or everyone froze. Today, we have oil and gas providing the heat and a fake fire can provide the homeliness. It doesn't stop there. We have fake meat in our burgers so no need for butchery, fake grass on our lawns so we don't have to mow or weed them and now we have computer generated versions of great annual sporting events in case for any reason we aren't able to put them on for real.
The situation we now find ourselves in, is definitely a reason why more than 70,000 spectators, Owners, Trainers, Jockeys, Trainers Staff, Racecourse Staff, TV Cast and Crew and of course the horses themselves, should not be within 2 feet of each other. But in troubled times, people want nostalgia. Would we have ended up with Mrs Brown on our tv screens if it hadn't been for the 2008 Financial Crisis? Did anyone deserve that break more than Brendan O'Carroll who had toured countless versions of the Mrs Brown show around every Town Hall in Ireland for about twenty years? You don't have to like Mrs Brown to appreciate the work that has gone into it.
Last Saturday evening, five million people tuned into ITV to watch a CG version of the biggest horse race in the world. Tiger Roll has already achieved immortality by becoming the first horse since Red Rum, the most famous race horse in history, to win back to back Nationals. He was going for an unprecedented three in a row but given the circumstances of his season so far, it looked a tall order. This year anyway. I was lucky enough to visit Cullentra in November as part of a Racing Club tour and had the privilege of spending about half an hour in the company of the most famous racehorse in the world. It was all systems go for the season at that point. Same prep as last year - a run over fences before Christmas, the Boyne Hurdle at Navan in February, the Cross Country at Cheltenham in March and the Aintree on the first Saturday in April. But not long after the tour, Tiger was injured though not ruled out for the season. He would go to Navan and Cheltenham where he ran well but didn't win these two races he'd won last year. Could he still win the third National?
By the time Cheltenham came round, the germ, as my five year old calls it, had started to take hold and like the bush fires in Australia from the back end of last year, it spread quickly and extensively. Unbelievably, if you didn't work in the NHS or at any level of food retail, you had to work from home otherwise you were only allowed to travel if you needed to go to the hospital for any reason or to do grocery shopping. Almost a month on from Cheltenham, this remains the situation. The Grand National was cancelled weeks ago. Whether Tiger Roll would have come on for those two runs to win the treble, we will never know. Inspired Entertainment who specialise in virtual sports have been providing a Data National since 2017 as part of ITV's Grand National coverage. Cause Of Causes won it in 2017 then came second in the real thing. They correctly predicted Tiger Roll would win in 2018 but they didn't rate him for back to back wins the following year instead going for Rathvinden who came third in the main event.
Potters Corner has been on my radar for over a year, he was a faller at the second last in the 2019 Eider with every chance. If I was looking at the form for a race, I would never pick a horse that fell in their previous run (unless the form suggested the last 3 winners of the race all fell in their previous run) but having watched Potters Corner and being so impressed with him despite falling (and it was a really bad looking fall too), I backed him in the Midlands National at Uttoxeter the day after returning from the 2019 Cheltenham Festival. James Bowen gave him a peach of a ride and Potters Corner showed tremendous guts and stamina to out battle Ms Parfois and win the 4m2f marathon in the mud. Surely the Grand National, over the same distance, would be a target the following year? When everyone was starting to do their 20 horses to watch for the year, I only had one. I tweeted Christian Williams to ask what the plans were for Potters Corner "Not 100% sure. Options in France. Lower hurdles mark or chasing". No mention of any Nationals. He’d already ran in a French hurdles race in May and he’d come second at Auteuil 3 years ago for his previous Trainer so the French runs were nothing out of the ordinary.
The road to Aintree began at Aintree in November when he pulled up in a 3m hurdle race. Two weeks later he finished well down the field at Haydock in another one of those then two weeks after that, he won a 3 mile hurdle at Chepstow, a race I missed but he was back there 3 weeks on to contest the Welsh National. 17 year old Claimer, Jack Tudor was on board now after Adrian Heskin and Adam Wedge were used for the first two races. The young Welsh man had won the last day on the horse trained by his fellow countryman. It was a ride of someone beyond his tender years. The horse travelled brilliantly but so did the favourite Remastered and the Dan Skelton horse Acccordingtogino who was in receipt of 10lb. These three fought an unmerciful battle from two out. Potters Corner looked beaten two or three times but stayed on gamely and wore his opponents down to win by a neck.
And so to Chepstow, two days after Christmas. Tudor had him nice and handy from the off and he settled nicely in behind The Two Amigos and Yala Enki. It was a misty December day, the ground was heavy. Potters Corner was loving it. He travelled great, jumped economically and just looked the winner from a long way out. The two leaders were passed going over the third last and they were beaten from the penultimate fence. Truckers Lodge came from further back and briefly threatened to run on but Jack Tudor asked his horse for another effort and he flew the last then kept on to the line ending a 54 year wait for a Welsh winner. What a day for Wales! What a day for Potters Corner. What a day for Jack Tudor, Christian Williams and the owners who include ex-Welsh Rugby star Jonathan Davies.
Now could he go on to be the first horse since Earth Summit in 98 to win the Grand National, a few months after winning the Welsh? All the talk was rightly about Tiger Roll going for three in a row while Michael and Eddie O'Leary continued to play chicken with the handicapper in the hope the defending champion's mark would be reduced so he wasn't carrying much more weight than the second highest rated horse. In the end he was rated 170 instead of 172 but would still be carrying 2lb more than 2019 Gold Cup third, Bristol De Mai. This was all a bit of a side show for me. While I would have loved to have seen Tiger Roll win three straight Nationals, I also wanted to make sure Potters Corner was in the top 40 and he was, just, at number 36.
This was the end of February 2020 and the Coronavirus had travelled from China to Europe and suddenly something that wasn't really being worried about was knocking at our door and within weeks the human population of every country on the continent was reminded how precious life is and how, fundamentally, we are just animals too. Cheltenham went ahead, though it remains to be seen how many people lost their lives by gambling on going to the racing festival this year. I still enjoyed it on TV, the quality of racing was as good as any year and hopefully it hasn't been the humanitarian disaster many are predicting. Sadly though that was the last hurrah for big jumps racing this year. Well not quite. Truckers Lodge bounced back from his second place in the Welsh National to emulate Potters Corner in winning the Midlands National. That was more or less it though. The Aintree spectacle was cancelled two days later. Irish Racing would continue as the last sport standing albeit behind closed doors. A week later, it was over too.
Life as we knew it came grinding to a halt. Schools closed. People are working from home and teaching their children at the same time. We can measure exactly 2 metres apart as we imagine ourselves trying to reach the person we are talking to with a kitchen brush while we are on our daily trip outside for fresh air and exercise. Technology has never been more important in keeping the wheels of industry turning, to keep people earning money so we don't freak out and empty our bank accounts. When I was a teenager my friends and I would have a carry out (cans of beer and bottles of cider bought from an off license) on Friday night in a wood before going out to a pub or a disco. Every Friday after watching Blossom on Channel 4, we met up, drank and discussed our world. This continued for 10-15 years and the locations evolved to living rooms or kitchens of rented houses at University so we no longer had to brave the weather (unless we went to a concert or a music festival). Houses were bought, girlfriends became wives and families of two became families of 3,4,5 or more. The Friday night carry out became an annual Christmas dinner. Last Friday, my friends and I had our first CarryIT, joining the large numbers congregating on Zoom to connect with those we'd just taken for granted for the last 10-15 years. Most of us live within half an hour of each other and regularly drive past each others houses but rarely, if ever, call in. It was enough to have a Whatsapp group with everybody on it as we communicated only by text and forwarding on videos and pictures. On our CarryIT, we sat down with our beers, wine, spirits and cups of tea, looking at and talking to each other and to friends in London and San Francisco. I clocked out after about two and a half hours. Some of them carried on until after 2 in the morning. Hopefully the effects of coronavirus will only be felt by us in positive ways like this and we meet up every Friday night at 8.30 until this thing is over and then we resolve to continue doing it and meet up in person much more than we were before this. I'd written a script for a short film about the damage technology was doing to humanity and because people didn't have to leave the house if they didn't want to. Little did I know I'd be living that now, only it's not that I don't want to leave the house it's that I'm not allowed to, except for essentials.
Just as people want friends and family for comfort and reassurance during uncertain times, they also want nostalgia and nothing takes you back in time like the Grand National. I remember tipping Earth Summit to one of my mates who had no idea about horse racing (he wasn't with us on Friday but is joining us this week) and the two of us standing in a queue on the street outside the bookies to collect our winnings and no doubt spend it on what are now known as prinkies, before going out that night. Last Saturday morning, I was queuing, 2 metres apart, in Sainsburys car park waiting to get my weekly groceries. The last time I won The National, I got Auroras Encore in the sweep at work having already picked it as my horse that year because I’d watched it finish strongly in The Warwick Chase. On our CarryIT, I was asked who I fancied for the Virtual National and my reply was Potters Corner and Kimberlite Candy. The former for the detailed reasons in this post but when I actually looked at the field and applied my usual formula of looking at the age, weight and last run of the 3 previous winners, it was these two horses that ticked the most boxes. My only concern was whether Potters Corner would like the virtual ground. He seemed to be a bit of a mudlark and if the ground was going to be based on current weather then surely the going would have been good to soft or soft with good in the description at very worst since there hadn't been a lot of rain. I watched the Betfair documentary about Tiger Roll and those closest to him kept going on about how he needed good ground. That seems to be a very recent thing because I was out in the middle of the course for the 2019 Cross Country at Cheltenham and if there was a mark on the going stick for swampy then that would've been it but he skipped over it and destroyed the field. Whether the going came into the virtual reckoning or not I don’t know but the last 3 winners of the race had won over 3m5f or 3m6f in their previous run and the two horses I picked were the only two in the race who managed that. Five 10 year olds had won in the last 14 years. Potters Corner is 10 but only 2 had won off Potters Corners weight of 10st 6lb. That's the sort of info I'm sure went into the algorithm to generate the winner.
When the race finally got started after Red Rum had won the all star race, Potters Corner was sitting about mid division although it wasn't until he got to the Canal Turn, flight number 8, that I first spotted him. Before that I'd just been listening to make sure he hadn't fallen. The next time I saw him for sure was fence 13 when the camera angle was below the fence so the audience got to see the horses land. He was in the final third of the field with plenty of room around him. I always remember an interview with Katie Walsh about riding in the National and she said it was important to keep a semi circle of room in front of you. Potters Corner was in good shape as they set off on their second lap. The long straight with jump after jump from where they started saw several fallers but I didn't hear either of my horses mentioned and then I saw Potters Corner, just after Bechers. He was not that far behind the leading cluster of nine horses and for the first time I thought, he's got a good chance here. They went over Foinavon and then it was the Canal Turn again. He was moving through the field towards the leaders. Tony McCoy commented this week that if you’re still there for the Canal Turn the second time and you’re within distance of the leader, you’ve got a real chance. But there are still so many things that can go wrong. Bristol De Mai was beside Potters Corner when he fell at fence 26. I was looking out for Kimberlite Candy too but there were a few in JP's colours so wasn't sure which one he was. No mention of him anyway which wasn't a good sign. Tiger Roll was in the lead with Any Second Now (in the JP colours), The Storyteller, Aso and then Potters Corner as they went over the third last. Suddenly Aso breezed past Tiger Roll and looked like he was going to run away with it. There was a long gap between the second and third last and Aso opened up an eight length lead. But no sooner was he looking like the winner than he was down at the second last and it was as you were with Tiger Roll in the lead and Any Second Now behind him. Potters Corner was now third and by the time they got to the final fence he’d taken the lead. Would Tiger get another chance? The chase for three in a row looked over. I was on my feet now willing my horse home. Potters Corner moved 3 lengths clear as they approached the elbow. And now for the longest run in. When you’re on the leader of the Grand National those 15-20 seconds between the elbow and the finish line seem like an eternity when there are a pack of horses chasing yours down. Walk In The Mill, the winner of the Becher Chase at Aintree, came through like a train and was gaining with every stride. I watched open mouthed pleading for the line, fearing we’d get pipped. But it didn’t really matter, did it?
Jack Tudor probably would not have been eligible for the ride on Potters Corner this year because he hadn’t won enough races. So it was poetic that he virtually rode him to victory here. Hopefully next year, he qualifies for the ride and can go for a sort of double of his own. Who knows, if he does, he could be a guest on All Round To Mrs Browns this time next year. At the very least he’ll end up as an answer on Question Of Sport as the winner of the second National that never was. Some City, Everton or United fan (it doesn’t matter which team, they’re all together in fear of Liverpool winning the league again) mentioned how Liverpool would be like Esha Ness if the season was voided. In all honesty, I had to look up who they were talking about. I didn’t know the name of the horse who won the National when a false start was called but most of the field were unaware and carried on the whole way round only for the winner to be told he hadn’t won. The difference here is, I don’t think we’d ever be allowed to forget if the league is cancelled this year. My mate is a United fan and his teenage son was singing a song he’d written about the scousers thinking they’d won it only for coronavirus to scupper it. Some rival fans of all ages have been saying similar since the league was suspended while some Liverpool fans have been adamant it has to be finished so we can be crowned champions. It doesn’t really matter though, does it? My mate is also a United fan who never wants to see Liverpool win anything but his view is that if this season does get finished that means we’ve got through this. If it doesn’t then we haven’t made enough progress. Disparagers say that sport and in particular football, doesn't matter now because it's just a lot of overpaid players and managers who have enough money but what this crisis has also highlighted is the amount of ordinary people who work behind the scenes to enable sport to go ahead. Not everyone involved in sport is a multimillionaire whether you're an administrator or a competitor. Everybody just wants to get back to doing what they do. Sport does matter as a sort of measuring stick as to where we are in the battle against corona. It matters because it gives people hope. We will return to a normal life at some point and hopefully Tiger Roll gets to go for his third Grand National in a row in 2021 and all those who were supposed to run in it this year, get the chance again. It matters because it gives people something to talk about. It’s a welcome distraction.
The virtual Grand National was watched by 5 (FIVE) million people who were looking for a distraction through something comforting. Millions of pounds were gambled and donated to the NHS who are now more appreciated than ever but are still operating with one hand tied behind their back. We are witnessing now what the most important elements of modern life are. Food, personal hygiene, medicine, technology and sport. We are only allowed to leave the house for a few reasons and only one of those is something we are encouraged to do everyday - take exercise. So whether it’s going for a walk, a run or a cycle along the same route each morning, afternoon or evening, you’ll probably find yourself getting it easier the more you do it either by design or repetition. Kicking or throwing a ball among the family will likely turn into a game. Sport is a routine, it’s practice, fitness and competition. Getting out and being active was important before all this but it’s even more important now. Sport is entertainment. The virtual Grand National gave us all the things the real National has given us every year. The sweep stakes were still run, the pin sticker packs were still printed, the predictions were made, the bets were still put on, the race was still watched, the drama still unfolded, the winner was still declared, bets were still won, the question “did you have the winner?” was still asked and the 2020 race was still written and talked about. It doesn’t matter if it wasn’t real.
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