Trailblazer Blackmore makes more history
As someone said to me on Saturday night, “It’s Rachael’s world and we are just living in it”.
It seemed the perfect way to sum up the events at Aintree when Rachael Blackmore made yet more history by becoming the first female jockey to win the Randox Grand National on Minella Times.
As far as Rachael is concerned, she’s just a jockey who has won the ultimate prize in racing, a race devilishly difficult to win and one that only the privileged few managed to add to their CVs; the fact she is a woman is irrelevant.
I can understand that from her perspective, but whether she likes it or not, she is a trailblazer who has changed the course of many people’s lives and opened the door to many who felt it was firmly closed to them. The enormity of what she has achieved may not sink in for some time but the impact of that race result from Aintree on Saturday April 10, 2021 will be felt forever.
Jockeys' battle going all the way
So the Grand National has been run and the Craven meeting took place at Newmarket this week. I always feel this is a strange time of year when the two codes collide and you’re not quite ready to let go of one and not quite fully immersed in the other.
We are hanging on to the thrill of the National Hunt season with both hands though with the jump jockeys' championship going right down to the wire. Richard Johnson has taken his final curtain call and will now be able to take things a little easier as Harry Skelton and Brian Hughes go head-to-head in the quest to be champion jockey.
It’s been nip and tuck of late with reigning champion Hughes slightly on the back foot. However, by the time you read this, so competitive is their tussle, he may well be back in front. Skelton, like his riding style, is throwing himself into it headlong and that determined attitude is seeing the winners rattle up.
He’s very reminiscent of Sir Anthony McCoy in his manner on a horse and it didn’t do the 20-time champ any harm in his quest for greatness. I don’t really mind who comes out on top, but I’m taking each day at a time and enjoying the journey, and maybe that’s something we’ve all learned to do over the past 12 months.
Weekend view
With the funeral of The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, taking place on Saturday, the two feature meetings this weekend have been switched to Sunday. Newbury host the Greenham meeting and Ayr the Coral Scottish National. Let’s start off with the Flat racing then where we may get some 2000 and 1000 Guineas pointers at the Berkshire track.
The Watership Down Too Darn Hot Greenham Stakes sees some smart colts stake their claims for Classic honours, led by the Richard Hannon-trained Chindit. I was really taken by this son of Wootton Bassett last season and remember being impressed with his laidback attitude before he won the Champagne Stakes at Doncaster in September.
He looks a real professional and I’m happy to forgive his performance on his final start in the Dewhurst for which there were excuses. Having seen him in a recent feature with his trainer on Sky Sports Racing, I think he’s in for a productive season. He’s Sky Bet’s 2/1 favourite for the Greenham and is currently 14/1 for the QIPCO 2000 Guineas.
His closest market rival on Saturday is Alkumait, who strikes me as more of a sprinter going forward rather than a Classic contender, so much so that Sky Bet have him priced up for the Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot for which he’s a 14/1 shot.
He failed on his only try at seven furlongs as a two-year-old in the Dewhurst, but the soft ground was blamed on that occasion. His trainer Marcus Tregoning won the last running of the Greenham in 2019 with Mohaather who ended up being a smart miler.
This fella is bred for speed though and that’s the way I see it going. The Hannons - both junior and senior - have won this race with some lovely colts in the past and I expect junior to do so again with Chindit on Sunday.
The Dubai Duty Free Stakes is for the fillies over the same seven furlongs and I expect Alcohol Free to run a big race here, but whether she enhances her 1000 Guineas prospects remains to be seen as she is bred to be pretty quick.
Trainer Andrew Balding has started the season incredibly well which adds to her claims of winning this Group Three and it will be a learning curve to see where she goes for the rest of the season. She ended last term with a win in the Group One Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket where she showed a tendency to race a bit keenly.
It will be interesting to see if she stays this seven furlongs well on Sunday before making any plans about the 1000 Guineas over the mile. She’s Sky Bet’s 3/1 favourite to win at Newbury and 12/1 for the Newmarket feature.
There shouldn’t be any issues with her rival Lucid Dreamer staying the trip as her dam is a half-sister to Leger winner Logician. Trained by Roger Charlton for Juddmonte, she comes into her three-year-old season unbeaten in two starts but is also a buzzy type.
It’s a tricky time of year for the fillies as we aren’t quite fully into spring when they really start to bloom. The one I’m perhaps most intrigued to see is the John and Thady Gosden-trained Wild Iris.
Like a few of Gosden’s future stars, she began her career at Newcastle where she overcame a very slow start to win comfortably. There could be any amount of improvement to come and although she’s by a speedy stallion in No Nay Never (the same sire as Alcohol Free), she has stamina on the dam’s side of the family and that win as a juvenile was over seven furlongs.
She’s 10/1 for this weekend’s assignment and 33/1 for the Guineas.
Jump at the chance to back Dollar
From one end of the spectrum to the other and the Coral Scottish Grand National over four miles at Ayr on Sunday.
There would be fewer more popular winners than Aye Right for trainer Harriet Graham, who combines that role with being clerk of the course at Hamilton. I was at Doncaster when her stable star was agonisingly reeled-in by (2019 Scottish National winner) Takingrisks in the Sky Bet Chase back in January and this consistent horse deserves to win a big one.
He has subsequently finished third at the Cheltenham Festival off a rating of 154, which he remains on for this staying handicap chase. He is Sky Bet’s 11/2 favourite in a wide open contest.
Sandy Thomson worked his magic with Dingo Dollar who is another horse he has rejuvenated since taking over his training in early March. He won on his first start for the yard at Newcastle last month and he’s now 7lbs higher in the weights as a result of that.
Sam’s Adventure comes here having won the Eider Chase at Newcastle at the end of February for trainer Brian Ellison and he is now 8lbs up in the weights, but I imagine he would prefer softer ground.
Soldier Of Love could make the long journey up from Somerset for Paul Nicholls, who first won this with Belmont King back in 1997. This horse bypassed the National Hunt Chase at Cheltenham due to the ground, but his second place to Galvin in a novice chase at Cheltenham back in October makes him a fascinating runner here.
The fact the weather is set fair at Ayr bodes well as he needs a decent surface to be seen at his best. You can make a case for so many, but at the risk of mentioning everything with an entry, I’ll let you know that having tipped up DINGO DOLLAR when he won last time, he’s at the top of my shortlist and is 15/2 to win it with Sky Bet.
I also want SOLDIER OF LOVE on side giving the prevailing underfoot conditions. He is 10/1 at the time of writing.
And finally, another feather in the cap of Blackmore. Leading French trainer David Cottin has snapped up her services for one of the most prestigious races in the French jump racing calendar, the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris on May 23.
She will get the leg-up on one time Grand National prospect Ajas who is one of the leading chasers on the other side of the Channel. His regular rider Kevin Nabet has chosen to stay loyal to Cottin’s other runner Le Berry, so the spare ride was up for grabs and who better than Rachael to take on the fearsome challenge of the huge Auteuil fences?
The race will be live on Sky Sports Racing next month.
