We owe the sport a fairer portrayal than it’s getting in this steroids case

The BHA’s formal statement yesterday on the 8 year ban given to Mahmood Al Zarooni was sadly lacking in a robust defence of  UK racing in general. We should not simply assume that the public will take it for granted that quick and decisive action here means full confidence in the sport’s integrity. That needs driven home in plain language.

Yes we have a ‘rogue trader’ in MAZ, but it’s not as though it was 11 horses from different yards.

In rushing to Hang em High and display a sense of purpose, we should not neglect responsibility for the sport’s importance and image.

When the public see DOPING headlines, steroids will be out of sight of their minds’ eye. What they will see is fizzing syringes full of equine rocket fuel or a concoction that puts a horse to sleep.

The most junior of PR execs would have advised the BHA to ensure the big picture is driven home forcefully. That picture shows UK racing to be, in general, the cleanest in the world. The BHA, the media, and all of us owe the sport more than it’s getting in this case.

The betting shop manager who made millions from FOBTs

The article below is reproduced with the kind permission of Chris Pitt at BOS magazine. I met Steve Frater some years ago when he showed me round the Hounslow West shop he mentions here (I was working for the Tote at the time), but I didn’t realise we shared other links – I too worked for the brash new upcomers City Tote, moving from Ladbrokes wages of £12.50 a week to £20 a week at CT.

What struck me about the article was Steve’s ‘feet-on-the-ground’ attitude, right to this day; none of the Billy Big Balls business-speak or bragging.  The other factor this piece highlights, for me, at least, is the importance of having a maverick in a company, someone who sees the big picture long before others and is willing to fight a case for it. And credit to the bosses, like Bob Green, who encouraged such an attitude.

I’m reading a kind of potted psychology book just now. One chapter is entitled ‘Every company needs an Asshole’. Assholes are the guys who won’t shut up when they see something could be done better. They’re the ones who won’t accept ‘we’ve always done it this way’ admonitions. ‘Maverick’ is a more PC term for such people but I know what the author means – they are assholes to those who don’t want the cozy status quo upset.

All organisations could be doing with a maverick, racing in particular. If you’re lucky enough to come across one working for you, look after him or her, because mavericks get pissed off pretty quick from banging against cobwebbed doors and they move on to eventually benefit the more enlightened.

End of rant!

Back to the article . . .I know some readers despise FOBTs. I don’t. I believe their damaging effects have been way overplayed, much like the Anti-Grand National brigade lay it on against that great race.  Yes, there are horror tales from some addicts, but millions play them without any damage.  Also, in my opinion they are crucial to the future of racing in the UK – profits from them are keeping a lot of betting shops open.

 

 

Steve Frater

STEVE FRATER LEANS back in a comfortable settee in a comfortable room within SG House, in the West London suburb of Feltham. It’s a big, modern-day building, synonymous with big, modern-day achievement.

As co-founder of the first fixed odds betting terminal supplier The Global Draw, in just eight years he oversaw his company grow from a garage in Osterley, near Hounslow, in 1998 to its sale to Scientific Games Corporation for a reported £104m in 2006.

In October last year, he became executive chairman for SG Gaming, an amalgamation of The Global Draw, machines supplier Games Media and content provider Barcrest, all wholly owned subsidiaries of Scientific Games Corporation. The merger saw SG Gaming bring together over 700 employees spread across a dozen nations.

It’s all a far cry from his first day’s work in a betting shop, which left him ruing his decision to leave a cosy office job in the City.

Steve was born in the North London borough of Islington in 1952 but his family moved when he was 11 to a flat in the Highbury area, one minute from the Arsenal ground, thus explaining his lifelong support of the Gunners.

On leaving school he got a job in the City with a publication that produced daily movements and statistics on stocks and shares.

“I did it because I liked maths but it was boring, sitting in an office, looking at figures,” he recalls.

“I had an aunt who worked in the payroll department of Ron Nagle, a turf accountant in North London. They’d just merged with a company called City Tote. Their head office was based in Finsbury Park, two minutes from where I lived. She told me they were looking for trainee managers.

“I was earning £8 a week, whereas trainee managers were getting £20 a week, a big jump. So I went for an interview and got the job. That was in 1972. I was 20.

“The first shop they sent me to was in Harringay. They told me I didn’t need to be there until one o’clock and, as it was my first day, the manager would just let me watch.

“I got there at one o’clock and the shop was packed. The manager said that one of the staff had gone off sick and I’d have to help him out on the tills, so they threw me in at the deep end. I remember coming out at the end of that first day thinking ‘this isn’t for me. I’ve made a mistake. I’ve given up a nice, quiet office in the City to work in betting shops where everyone’s shouting and swearing at you.’

“The next shop they sent me to was much quieter and I settled in. Shortly after that, City Tote and the Nagles sold out to Mecca and the whole group became Mecca Bookmakers.

“A year later I was managing shops all around where I lived. Then I got married and moved down to Ilford, so I began working in that area.”

He slowly progressed up the managerial ladder, working at several Mecca shops, before a vacancy for an assistant claims manager arose at the head office in Finsbury Park.

“I used to play football for Mecca Bookmakers’ football team. The claims manager at that time, a guy named Ernie Oliver, was also the manager of the football team. They had about 200 applicants but because I was in the football team I think I had a bit of an advantage and I got the job.

“Bob Green and all the senior Mecca people were based in that office. I must have done a good job because, after six months, Ernie went off to do something different and they promoted me to claims manager, which was great. In the space of two years I’d gone from a middle grade betting shop manager to working in the head office with the likes of Bob Green.

“In those days, if you had a bet query or a complaint, you had to write in and most ended up going to The Sporting Life Green Seal Service who used to rule on claims. I thought that was ridiculous.

“I went to see Bob Green and said ‘we are spending a fortune refurbishing our shops and yet if people have a complaint in one of them, they can’t speak to anyone.’ I suggested introducing a freephone helpline to give customers an instant response. Bob was all for it but everyone else I spoke to thought I was mad, that we’d have a thousand calls a day with everyone trying to cheat us.

“We introduced a customer helpline. We were the only company to do that and we promoted it in our adverts. It quickly grew from just me to a team of three or four and it became an industry standard. We always had a great reputation for dealing with our customers.

“In 1986 Grand Metropolitan, who owned Mecca, bought William Hill. At the time it seemed likely they would move their head office to Leeds. If they’d done so, I’d have left. But at the last minute they decided to move to Wood Green and stay in London.

“After Bob Green left Mecca/William Hill for the US to take on a racecourse venture in Philadelphia, John Brown took over in charge of the betting shops. He liked our customer relations department and retained it.

“I then began to become involved in the operational side. I got quite interested in that because it gave me an insight into how with some innovation you could make a real difference to the performance of betting shops.

“By the early 1990s I was working for Barry Puttock, a Mecca guy who, as part of Mecca’s international expansion, had been in South Africa. While out there he’d met an Austrian named Walter Grubmuller. They looked at doing business together but didn’t, but they kept in touch.

“One day Barry came into the office and said that Walter wanted to set up large betting shops in Vienna and needed someone to talk to about it. He asked if I’d be interested and arranged for me to go and see him.

“It was October and our son, Dean, was due to be born in December. I’d originally planned the week off on holiday to spend time buying baby furniture and stuff for the bedroom. But my wife said ‘You go to Vienna. You never know.’

“Walter met me at Vienna airport and I spent a week with him. We hit it off immediately. He was very similar to Bob Green, entrepreneurial, and I really liked him. He was one of those guys that made things happen. He was a co-founder of Novamatic and he’d made his money through gaming machines but he liked betting shops. Interestingly his betting shops all had a gaming machine area.

“We kept in touch, and then he suggested we went into betting shops together over here. However, I’d got a reasonable job, I liked what I did, and I didn’t want to go back to being a betting shop manager, even if it was working for Walter.

“When AWPs were allowed in betting shops in 1996, he saw that as his opportunity and persuaded me to go into business with him. Just by chance I knew someone who was selling a betting shop in Hounslow. It was a great shop so Walter and I agreed to buy it. I was still working for William Hill so we put a manager in, put the machines in. Then the guy who’d sold us that shop came back with another shop for sale, in Queensbury (near Wembley), so we bought that too.

“In the end I left William Hill and became a partner in the two betting shops.

“We traded as Admiral. We’d got the name from Novamatic. Admiral was one of their machine brands. I liked the name and Walter talked the owner of Novamatic into letting us use it. Novamatic’s slogan was ‘Admiral: Games of the World’. I adapted it to ‘Admiral: World of Betting’.

“Around that time we’d been to a Betting Shop Show and seen a company called Lottery King trying to promote a keno game for betting shops. That was also the time when betting shops were suffering from the competition of the (recently introduced) National Lottery, and they were just bringing in 49s, which was a live draw twice a day, as a competitive product.

“Every October we used to go to Dubai with our families. Walter had a house there at the time. This particular year I’d gone first with my family; Walter came out a couple of days later. I met him off the plane. As he came through the airport gate he said ‘I’ve got an idea; it’s going to make us rich’. In the car from the airport to the house he told me his idea of having a gaming machine with a central screen in the shop. Instead of having a twice daily draw, we could have a game every thirty minutes.

“At that time you couldn’t have a random number generator in the betting shop; it had to be from a remote location. We went to see Barry Stapeley at SIS. He came up with the idea of having a random number generator based at premises in Bedford and they could beam it to your betting shop, and that’s a remote event.

“We put it in our shop in Hounslow and it did okay, but Walter still wasn’t satisfied. He believed if we could do an automated draw every half an hour, we could do it every five minutes, or every one minute. We got QC’s advice then started to develop the concept.

“Then we came up with the idea of making it every second, as the principle was the same. That’s what led to what became known as fixed odds betting terminals.

“The concept didn’t start as a FOBT. It was about finding an alternative lottery product. The idea was to produce an automated numbers draw in our shops. It developed through the concept of taking the regulations and pushing the boundaries to the limit.

“We’d built up our chain from two to five shops, then in 1998 we found a shop in Hounslow West. We decided to gut it, build it like a cinema and put in a whole bank of terminals, about a dozen. The front part was for the terminals; the back part was the betting shop. It had tiered flip-up seating as well with two giant projector screens.

“It was a massive shop, different to any other betting shop in the country and there is nothing like it even now. It was so big, people would get lost in there. Within a month of opening, business was phenomenal.

“Tax on turnover at that time was 6.75 per cent; our lottery game had a hold of about 10 per cent.

“Within a couple of months the MDs of the big firms were coming in to see what we were doing, as well as the casinos and the arcade people.

“Then there was a swell of activity from the arcade, casino and bingo people claiming it was illegal, whereas the bookmakers were asking ‘can we try this in our shops?’

“Ladbrokes were the first, led by John O’Reilly and Terry Leon but their interest died when Alan Ross was appointed MD. Then Coral tried it, a 10 to 20-shop trial initially but when Coral made Phil Horne head of machines that’s when the Coral relationship really started as he really believed there was a chance of making it work.”

A deal was struck with Coral to increase the number of shops to 200 but nine months into the contract, The Global Draw was struggling to make their share work, as Steve recalls.

“We were trying to find ways of boosting our income. It was about this time that bookmakers were trying to convince the government to change from a turnover tax to a gross profit tax. I discussed it with Walter and we agreed that if it went to a gross profit tax we could develop roulette and put it on the machines. The gross profit tax was accepted and within a few weeks we’d put roulette on all the machines in our own shops, then we rolled it out to the Coral shops.

“From the day we put in roulette, it just went like that,” he says, pointing upwards, through the roof and towards the stars. “When the other bookmakers saw what we and Coral were doing, everybody wanted them.

“Coral went from 200 shops to 400 to 800; we put machines in the Tote, Stanley, Jennings, Betfred and Hills. It snowballed; we expanded from having just a few technicians but we couldn’t keep up with the installation pace.

“Remember that the original idea of all this was that we would have a product in our shops that would give us an advantage over the other bookmakers. When we designed it we never intended it to go anywhere other than in the Admiral shops.

“We’d started Admiral in 1996 and had built that up to around 14 shops in North West London by the end of 2000. In 1999 we’d bought the group of four Krullind shops in Ipswich from Bert Hatcher, a real entrepreneur.

“In 2000 when the business really started to take off, I said to Walter ‘we can’t run our betting shops and compete with our own customers’ so we sold the London shops to Ladbrokes and kept the Krullind shops in Ipswich, which by then had grown from four to seven shops.

“Ladbrokes subsequently made an offer for the shops in Ipswich. It was at the peak of the betting shop market and they made us an offer we couldn’t refuse, so we sold the shops and from that point we were no longer into betting shops.

“Our original office was the kitchen of Walter’s house in Osterley. When we’d had the first machines in our shops we’d converted the dining room into a test room and used the double garage to store the machines.

“Then we found a warehouse but even before we’d moved in we’d got too big for it. We moved to Boston Business Park but outgrew that warehouse and had to take a second one. When we outgrew those we bought a building in Green Lane and converted it, but we eventually outgrew that. Finally we came here to Feltham.

“By 2006 Walter and I had got to the stage where we needed to do something. We were highly profitable but there was no end game and no real business plan. We recruited a guy to help us called Jeff Nash, who I’d met by chance and we talked about me buying the company with a VC to release equity and I’d run it.”

It was around that time that New York-based Scientific Games were looking to gain a foothold in the UK. The Corporation’s chairman and chief executive officer Lorne Weil came to London, met with Steve and Walter and offered to buy the business.

“The deal was that we would stay for three years, Walter as a consultant and me running it. Walter did leave after the three years but I stayed on,” says Steve.

In addition to purchasing The Global Draw, Scientific Games Corporation also acquired Games Media in 2006 and added Barcrest to their portfolio in 2011. Then, in October 2012, Scientific Games combined those three subsidiaries into a single entity, SG Gaming.

“SG Gaming has tied us into the parent company and put everything under one brand,” Steve explains. “We wanted all the staff to feel they’re part of one company, and we want our customers to see us as one company.”

And Phil Horne, who had placed his belief in the machines when working for Coral, is now SG Gaming’s managing director.

As the co-inventor of a product originally designed to counter the effect of the National Lottery, Steve could be excused for thinking that he’d ended up winning the Lottery without even buying a ticket. But he puts it down to circumstances and acknowledges his good fortune in meeting those people who have influenced his career.

“I’ve been lucky to work with three great innovators in Bob Green, Walter Grubmuller and now Lorne Weil. I met Bob again last year for the first time in twenty years and still have great admiration for him. Lorne treats me great and helps shapes my thinking, and in Walter, my greatest influence, I found someone that’s like a brother to me.”

He cites Walter’s understanding of gaming machines and natural desire to think big – as in the name he came up with for the company, The Global Draw – coupled with his own understanding of betting shops as the reason for their combined success.

“But,” he adds swiftly, “I’ve also been incredibly lucky. You think back to all those things that change your life. However much you want to complement yourself and think how bright you are, you need a lot of luck.

“If Mecca had moved to Leeds when they bought William Hill, I’d have left. If my wife had not insisted that I go to Vienna I’d never have met Walter. If the tax hadn’t changed, the machines wouldn’t have been as successful. If I’d stayed at William Hill and played safe rather than going into partnership with Walter…”

He doesn’t finish the sentence. He doesn’t need to.

“One of the things that’s given me the most personal satisfaction is that we’ve been able to create this company from nothing and it’s stayed ahead of the game all the time. And some of the people that were with me on day one in the betting shops are still here now.

“The great satisfaction I get is that all those people have come through it and Global Draw has changed their lives for the good also. We’ve stayed ahead of the game.”

Friday’s Aintree tips

The good news . . . I tweeted this today:

The bad news is it will probably never happen again. Tartan Snow won at 100/1 – his Betfair SP was 223/1. That tweet got 92 retweets and I got over 100 new followers. If you’re one of those, welcome.

I know that many think some people get ‘inside information’ on horse racing: they do, but it’s almost always useless. Yes, horses are laid out for certain races, not always in an honest fashion, and yes, sometimes they win. But these ‘plots’ are usually very carefully managed. Part of that management means keeping the inside info locked up. If it gets out, the horse’s price shortens and those managing these ‘coups’ suffer. So the plots are jealously guarded.

I used to work at Aintree. On my first big raceday there (the equivalent of today in 1994) I was introduced to 3 owners: each had a runner in the same race, each assured me his was a ‘cert’. None finished in the first three. Owners, trainers and jockeys are the worst tipsters you’ll find. They are extreme optimists by nature or they wouldn’t be in this business, and they almost always think their horse has a better chance than it does. Ignore them.  You’ll miss the occasional winner by doing so but you’ll save stacks by avoiding a barrowload of losers.

My tips

I bet almost exclusively on jump racing, much of it ante-post (well in advance of the race). I don’t study form, as such.  I listen to what pros in the business say – including owners, trainers and jockeys – and disregard about 95% of it. I pick up the odd precious nugget although it is often buried in a comment about a horse’s character rather than its chances in a particular race.

I’m much more interested in a horse’s character, quirks, running style and potential than in any other ‘weapon’ for assessing its chances.

The core of my ‘strategy’ if you can call it such, is to get value. That means betting a horse at a price that is substantially bigger than it should be, in my opinion. That’s why I like ante-post betting; you can often make a pretty accurate long-term analysis of a race that might be a year away and take advantage of the prices now. There are risks, of course; unlike your day to day betting, an ante-post bet, with most bookmakers, is lost if the horse does not run. At the foot of this post, for those still awake, you can read my analysis of the King George Chase which is due to be run on Boxing Day and promises one of the best value bets I’ve ever seen.

But back to the ’normal’ day-to-day stuff. To give you some idea of how strongly I fancy a horse, I work like this:

I tweet what I fancy if I think it is worthwhile. I often have a bet but won’t tweet about it because it is nothing but a small ‘throw-away’ bet to give me an interest in a race.

At big meetings like Aintree and Cheltenham, if I see something that looks great value – like Tartan Snow – I will tweet along the lines of ‘this is worth a bet’ ‘worth a small bet’, ‘worth an each way’ etc. That will generally mean that I’d have not much more than £5 or £10 on.

Sometimes there is excellent value to be had, as much in the way a horse can be bet as in its price.

For example, the Racing Post have an offer just now that if you bet using their mobile app, you’ll get your stake back as a free bet if your horse is 2nd in any race covered on Channel 4 (I don’t think they are offering this on Saturday).  In today’s big Chase, a horse called First Lieutenant was running. I’ve never backed him before but I know his style and character very well (as important, if not more so than form in my opinion). He is high class and, vitally for today, most consistent, having finished out of the first three just twice in all completed races (even then he was 4th).

I had £25 on using the Racing Post app (the max allowed for the stake-back offer). Before the race I tweeted this:

Now, I tell you this not only so I can show-off a bit, but so you can judge how strongly I fancy something by the way the tweet is worded.

If I really think something should not be missed, I always start the tweet ‘I strongly recommend a bet on…’. That doesn’t mean I think the horse is a cert. It does mean that I think he represents superb value and if you always get value, you will win in the long run.

So, be careful. Don’t bet more than you can afford to lose and never listen to ‘tips’ where the tipster claims inside info. The key reason I like to learn about a horse’s character and running style is that they are all individuals. They are no more dependable than human beings are. They sometimes have to go to the races feeling as pissed off as you do about going to work.

Finally, I often don’t tweet a tip until about 5 minutes or so before the off. I don’t charge for tips because I tip plenty of losers too.

So, on to tomorrow.

Third Intention in the 2.30 at Aintree is what is known to betting folk as a ‘cliff horse’ for me (I’d follow him off a cliff). He’s cost me plenty, but I’m convinced he has the ability to win a decent race. He’s around 16/1 tomorrow and I’ll be backing him through sheer dogged determination that I am going to get it right at some point.

Sprinter Sacre & B Geraghty

In the 3.05, jump racing’s wonderful Sprinter Sacre runs. A fantastic horse who many think unbeatable, and his price will reflect that at around 1/3. I love the horse but he might lose tomorrow. He won by a long way at Cheltenham but I think that race could have taken more out of him than some think. Many call him a great jumper; I don’t think he is. Spectacular, yes, but his style is, I believe, inefficient, using up a fair bit of energy, sometimes unbalancing him too. His jumping performance at Cheltenham was sloppy in places and I wouldn’t back him in any race at 1/3 let alone this hot one, until I’d seen a good clear round from him.

Followers of my blog/tweets know what’s coming next…Cue Card. Since I saw this horse win his first chase, I’ve thought him very special. He’s the opposite of Sprinter Sacre in that many people don’t like him. They crab his performances and criticise his attitude. But I think he’s a hell of a horse with a superb engine.

Cue Card wins the Ryanair

I agree that he looks a bit quirky with his slightly high head carriage, and his jumping style is all his own, a strange, cat-backed hop at times, miles from the huge leaps Sprinter Scare can throw. But handsome is as handsome does. We know he will stay this trip while SS is trying it over fences for the first time. SS trounced CC over 2 miles last season but I expect CC to be much closer over this 20 furlong trip. If Sprinter Sacre is to be beaten, Cue Card is the horse who will do it.  Last week I recommended an EW bet on him at 7/1, even though only the first 2 qualify for payouts in EW bets because of the number of runners (a minimum of 8 needed for three places EW).

I believe the worst CC will be is 2nd, so the value bet tomorrow is once again through the Racing Post app. I strongly recommend a bet on Cue Card through the app. He could pull off a victory and, if not, I’m very hopeful you’ll get your stake back as a free bet if you use the RP app (an appropriate time to say I take no payment of any kind from anyone or any business for what I write here).

That’s it for tomorrow though if you are on twitter I might tweet a small bet. My Grand National tips are here.  My analysis of the King George is below. If you want to take my advice on the KG bet,  you should do so before the 3.05 on Friday. If he beats Sprinter Sacre, he could very well be favourite for the Boxing Day race.

King George VI Chase, Boxing Day, Kempton

Cue Card is available at 12/1 for this race with a number of bookmakers and, if you are happy to accept the risks that come with ante-post betting (money lost if the horse doesn’t run) I strongly recommend that you bet him.

I tipped CC him for this race last year and had my biggest bet for a long time on him. But he made a bad mistake at the first, where he was on his nose, and another blunder at the third. Some claim he did not stay the trip, but I believe those early errors were much more debilitating than the 3 miles he was trying for the first time. Also, the race was run on the heaviest ground for a KG since 1937. Cue Card’s blunders and the glue-like going cost him all chance, I think (he finished 5th, beaten 20 lengths).

Since then he has won easily at Ascot and over 2m 5f at the Cheltenham festival (The Ryanair Chase). His trainer was recently reported as being keen to have another crack at the King George and if he runs, and I’m pretty confident he will, he’ll be a lot shorter than 12/1, especially if he gives Sprinter Sacre a tough race at Aintree in The Melling Chase.

Leaving aside Cue Card’s considerable talent, the King George looks to me like it won’t resemble the current structure as the bookies see it.

Some have Simonsig as favourite: his trainer thinks him a two-miler so he must be a doubtful runner. If he does turn up, he doesn’t jump well enough to win it imo and will need to prove he stays the trip (I have a suspicion he will return to hurdling next season).

Others have Sprinter Sacre as favourite. It’s not beyond possibility that he could stay the trip and The Melling chase will add some info on his stamina. But at the moment I think he’d need to be considered a doubtful runner.

Bobs Worth: another fine horse who’s won me a fair bit but he needs a stern stamina test, the kind Cheltenham brings (he’s unbeaten there and loves the hill). He’s another who might not even run and if he does, will probably struggle to go the pace, finding himself with too much to do in the later stages.

Long Run: lovely horse but woefully one-paced. He needs an even stiffer test than Bobs Worth these days.

Dynaste: overrated by quite some way and a doubtful stayer to boot.

Al Ferof: I’d fear him a bit if he returned to his best after a long time off injured. But horses with any history of serious injuries are seldom worth depending on in ante-post betting. Even at his best, Cue Card should beat him.

Flemenstar: judgement best reserved till after The Melling Chase, but he finished his last race like a horse with a problem and was later reported to be suffering from a lung infection. Still, he’s been involved in a couple of tight finishes and lost both. His trainer is also on record as saying the horse might be upset by travelling from Ireland. The Melling should tell us a lot more about him.

Silviniaco Conti: exposed today as probably a bit below top class.

First Lieutenant: a very likable horse and a good bet for a place but Cue Card thrashed him at Cheltenham and I don’t think the extra 660 yards of the KG will help him in his quest for revenge.

So, not only is Cue Card a highly talented horse, there are valid doubts about many of his potential opponents. The bookies have made a big mistake here. Cue Card should be no more than 5/1 in my book and he is a steal at 12/1.

Good luck

Joe

Join Together should outstay the other 39 and win the National

Racing’s the last game to be in if you are one for tempting fate so it is with a hopeful ‘touch wood’ that I say the National has always been one of my best betting races. It’s the only race I’ll back 5 or 6 different horses in but more often than not such a ‘system’ will bring profits.

If you just want the selections, here they are in order of preference with prices at the time of writing. The prices are from Betvictor.com who is paying out on each way bets if your horse finishes in the first 6 (most bookies pay only on the first 4). If you want to bet win only, you will find better prices for these horses by googling Easyodds or Oddschecker:

Join Together 16/1

Teaforthree 14/1

Ballabriggs 16/1

Quel Esprit 40/1

Saint Are 50/1

Edited on Friday to add a couple who are quite a bit bigger than they should be and, if your budget stretches. will be worth small additional bets: Soll at around 50/1 and Viking Blond who is way too big on Betfair at 200/1 – probably too big even at 100/1 with the normal bookies

Before you go, remember to take a price, especially in the betting shop. Don’t just write the slip out and hand over your cash – ask for the price the horse is when you put it on. You’ll almost certainly get bad value if you don’t. You can see why here.

Most think of the race as a complete lottery. It’s far from it. It takes an unusual type of horse to win the National – it’s the longest race of the season – 90 yards short of four-and-a-half-miles. The Aintree management are watering the track to soften the going and try to make it safer – horses run slower on easy ground, blunting the headlong speed which causes many of the falls. And if they do tumble, the watered surface is more forgiving. But it adds to the stamina requirements too, and stamina is the first thing I look for when picking horses for the National.

Many go for jumping ability first but a horse could clear every fence by a foot and still lose if it hasn’t got staying power. On the other side, I’ve seen some horses who were not noted as fine jumpers run great races in the National – Sunnyhillboy, beaten a nose last year (weighed down by my money), Don’t Push It who won in 2010 and a few others. The Aintree fences are so unusual in look and size (at every other track the fences are of black birch), that many horses see them and simply say the equine equivalent of “F*#k me!” and realise they need to pick their feet up to survive. Others do the opposite and lose confidence, blunder along for a while then pull up or refuse.

Those blunderers and topplers are the ones which can cause ‘our’ horses problems. Sometimes you get stuck behind one and trip over him as he rolls in front of you. Or they’ll come sideways and bump you off balance or knock the jock from the saddle. There’ll be a few hard luck stories on Saturday, there always are.

Apart from those who’ve already completed the course in past Nationals, there are two horses running who will relish every yard of this trip they’ll be trying for the  first time – Join Together and Teaforthree.

Join Together is a nicely balanced horse, strong but not that tall. There have been some big horses who’ve won the National – Party Politics was huge, over 17 hands (a hand is about four inches and horses are measured to the top of their shoulders), but big horses can be clumsy round Aintree and their body mass can, I think, be a drawback over such a distance with drops on some of the big fences jarring that half-ton bulk as they land. Red Rum was under 16 hands, but he was a beautifully balanced horse, and I favour horses close to his build. Join Together’s not quite as symmetrical as that great horse but he will do.

He’s trained by Paul Nicholls, one of the best, who trained last year’s winner Neptune Collonges. Ruby Walsh, who has first choice of Paul’s horses has decided not to ride Join Together – Ruby has yet to confirm which of two Irish horses he will ride and he will, as ever, leave Ruby Choose Day as late as possible – most seem to think he will pick On His Own. But he could have chosen Neptune Collonges last year and did not do so (albeit a late injury kept Ruby out of the race anyway).

Join Together ran over these fences in December on heavy ground over a distance about a mile short of Saturday’s. He just failed to catch Hello Bud after coming with a sustained run (you can see the race here - scroll forward to about 6 minutes 30 to see him finish).

He jumped with confidence and seemed to enjoy the fences (touching wood again here!) and unless he trips over something, he should reel them all in on the run from the last fence at about 4.25pm on Saturday.

Next time out, his trainer, for some crazy reason sent him over 3 miles at Doncaster one of the easiest tracks in the UK and very undemanding from a stamina viewpoint. He met some trouble in running there and was pulled up but would, in my opinion, have needed 5 miles at Doncaster to win, such is his need for a stamina test.

Teaforthree is another stout stayer and fine jumper. I’ve bet him too but was a wee bit concerned at his poor display at Haydock last time. His trainer put that down to the horse fretting at being away from home overnight (see, they are all individuals like us: some hate sleepovers) and he will travel up on Saturday morning to try and keep him  settled. Other than that last disappointment, Teaforthree has been very consistent. He’s won over 4 miles at Cheltenham and he almost certainly still has improvement in him. He jumps well and I backed him to win the Welsh Grand National: he was 2nd giving plenty weight to a pretty decent horse.

It was a close choice between the two but there is just a chance that Teaforthree might not take to these fences while I know that JT has no problem with them – that decided it for me.

Ballabriggs has been in and out of my mind. He won the National two years ago and was 6th last year. None of the last ten National winners has, so far, won another race of any kind. It’s massively taxing and Ballabriggs won in sweltering conditions under very strong driving (J Maguire hit him 15 times after the last, at least half of those unnecessary and bad for the race’s image but I’ll say no more on that). I thought Ballabriggs would never recover from his victory and his 6th last year surprised me. He ran well at Kelso this year and has 8lbs less to carry than in 2012. If he stays on his feet (and he’s managed that twice in this race) he will be very very hard to keep out of the first 6.

Others I’ll be betting are Quel Esprit, a classy grey horse who, in the main, jumps very well and, importantly, can slot into a rhythm quickly in his races; that is so important at Aintree. A horse galloping well within himself in a settled rhythmical fashion can save an awful lot of energy. Quel Esprit has never tried this long trip but his breeding suggests he has a fair chance of staying it and he has a considerable measure of class which can count for an awful lot in these handicap races. He is ridiculously overpriced at 50/1 (with other bookies) and well worth a couple of quid each way, even at 40s with Betvictor.

Saint Are is another 50/1 chance who could run well. Some horses love a certain track and Saint Are loves Aintree. From 3 runs here he’s won two and been second in the other one. Now those were over the smaller Mildmay course, not the Grand National course. But his trainer reckons it is the flatness of Aintree that suits him and maybe the time of year sparking him off. He’s one for making the odd mistake (Saint Are, not his trainer), but the very type I mentioned earlier who’ll go “WTF!?” and either jump them all clean or pack in early.

That’s it. Good luck, and remember, there’s no such thing as ‘good inside information’ getting out. If it is so good, those concerned keep it to themselves, otherwise the horse’s price collapses. Trainers, owners and jockeys are the worst tipsters in the world because they are born optimists who favour their own horses. Don’t bet more than you can afford to lose. Enjoy the race and let’s hope all come home safe.

Joe

All the latest news for The John Smith’s Grand National meeting

John Smith’s Grand National Day at Aintree – Saturday, April 6 – is now sold out in all enclosures which means over 70,000 will watch the 2013 John Smith’s Grand National.

Racegoers can purchase tickets and badges on the gate for the first two days of the John Smith’s Grand National meeting – Grand Opening Day tomorrow, Thursday, April 4 and Ladies’ Day, Friday, April 5.

Advance bookings are 10 per cent up for tomorrow so a new record crowd of more than 30,00 is expected for Grand Opening Day, while the attendance on Friday will be in excess of 50,000

JOHN SMITHS’ GRAND NATIONAL RUNNER TARQUINIUS SOLD TO NEW OWNER

Tarquinius, a runner in the 2013 John Smith’s Grand National, has been sold to a new owner three days before the big race on Saturday

Richard Gilbert, who has horses in training with Lucinda Russell, Chris Grant, Rose Dobbin and Keith Dalgleish, has bought the 10-year-old Turgeon gelding in a deal brokered by bloodstock agent Tom Malone.

Tarquinius is trained by Gordon Elliott in Co Meath, a trainer who knows all about what it takes to win the John Smith’s Grand National, and he will continue to train the horse.

Gilbert said of his purchase today “I don’t have a staying chaser at the moment and the fact that he had an entry in the John Smith’s Grand National was an added bonus.

“I have two other runners at the John Smith’s Grand National meeting – Montoya’s Son (trained by Chris Grant) in the Grade Three John Smith’s Topham Chase and Rathvawn Belle (trained by Lucinda Russell) in the Listed John Smith’s Mares’ Standard Open National Hunt Flat Race on Friday.

“Tarquinius will run in my name, although my other horses run under my company banner, because I didn’t have a horse in Ireland and I didn’t have time to sort out a company registration with Weatherbys Ire.”

Tom Malone added: “Because he held an entry in the John Smiths’ Grand National as well as being well handicapped over hurdles, we felt we should go for him. He is a horse who could stay in the big chases or go well over hurdles in Ireland. We could have a lot of fun with him.”

Richard Gilbert is the managing director of Straightline Construction Co Ltd, a construction firm based in Newcastle Upon Tyne, which specialises in the external refurbishment of houses throughout the north east. Straightline works in partnership with local authorities and social housing landlords to implement the government’s decent homes standard and modernisation programmes.

Gilbert, 34, was formerly a director of Aroma Wines, a fine wine brokers in the north east, and played rugby as a loose head prop until recently. He said “I found that it didn’t look very good coming into work with a black eye.”.

A lifelong fan of horseracing, Gilbert added: “There is no better spectacle than racing, and even better if you have a horse involved.”

“I have had horses for six to seven years, though I don’t ride myself. As a former prop, I don’t really have the build for it, though my wife Katherine rides. Katherine and I will both be there on Friday and Saturday.”

THE RUNNERS FOR THE 2013 JOHN SMITH’S GRAND NATIONAL KNOWN TOMORROW MORNING

The deadline for trainers and owners to take horses out of the Grand National is tomorrow (Thursday, April 4) at 10am.

There are 46 horses going forward this afternoon following Quinz’s withdrawal today because of a poor scope, Quinz’s scratching late this afternoon because of the same reason and the non-qualification of Romanesco after he ran in the Irish Grand National on Monday.

This means that both Major Malarkey, trained by Nigel Twiston-Davies, and the Jo Hughes-trained Soll get in the race.

Ruby Walsh has been confirmed as the rider of the 7/1 John Smith’s Grand National favourite with Betfred, official betting partner of the John Smith’s Grand National meeting.

The maximum number of runners is 40 on Saturday in the £975,000 race over 30 fences and four miles, three furlongs and about 110 yards.

There will be 40 declared runners and up to four reserves known before 11am tomorrow. The reserves will be utilised if there any non-runners by 9am on Friday, April 5.

THE 2013 JOHN SMITH’S GRAND NATIONAL

Class 1, Grade 3, £975,000 total prize fund. 4.15pm, Aintree, Saturday, April 6, 2013, about four miles, three and a half furlongs. For seven-year-olds and upwards who, up to and including March 18, 2013, have been placed first, second, third or fourth in a chase of three miles or more and which are allotted a rating of 120 or more by the BHA Head of Handicapping following a review of the horses entered and after taking account of races run up to and including February 10, 2013. Horses who are not qualified for a rating in Great Britain or Ireland at closing may also be entered. Such horses may be eligible for a weight providing the handicapper is satisfied that the horse’s racecourse performances up to and including February 10 would merit a minimum rating of 120. To qualify, horses must have run at least three times in chases run under the Rules of Racing of the same Recognised Racing Authority up to and including February 10, 2013. At the handicapper’s discretion, such horses may be allocated a rating. The decision of the BHA Head of Handicapping shall be final. The British Horseracing Authority has modified Rule (F)42.2.1 for the purposes of this race, such that racecourse performances up to and including Sunday, February 12, may be taken into account. A novice horse shall only be qualified to run in this race if it has run a minimum of three times in chases in Great Britain, Ireland or France in accordance with Rule (F)42.5. Highest weight 11st 10lb – no penalties after publication of the weights. Entries closed January 29, entries revealed January 30 (84 entries), weights revealed February 12, first scratchings’ deadline February 26 (73 go forward, 11 scratched), second scratchings’ deadline March 19 (57 go forward, 16 scratched). Five-day confirmation stage April 1, (49 go forward, 8 scatched) final declaration stage 10.00am, April 4 (two more out beforehand). Maximum field size of 40, plus four reserves. Form figures supplied by Weatherbys and are correct up to and including the racing of Sunday, March 31. Weights raised 4lb since original weights.

Form Horse Age/Wgt Owner Trainer/Probable Jockey

1) 51U/1P/-2 IMPERIAL COMMANDER (IRE) 12-11-10 Our Friends in the North Nigel Twiston-Davies/Sam Twiston-Davies

2) P/33F0-0 WHAT A FRIEND 10-11-09 Ged Mason & Sir Alex Ferguson Paul Nicholls/Sam Thomas

3) 3PF-4PP WEIRD AL (IRE) 10-11-08 Brannon Dick Holden Donald McCain/Timmy Murphy

4) 1113-04 QUEL ESPRIT (FR) 9-11-07 Red Barn Syndicate Willie Mullins IRE

5) 40/-U312 BIG FELLA THANKS 11-11-06 Crossed Fingers Partnership Tom George/Denis O’Regan

6) 1113-23 SEABASS (IRE) 10-11-06 Gunners Syndicate Ted Walsh IRE

7) 0-1U355 ROBERTO GOLDBACK (IRE) 11-11-06 Simon Munir Nicky Henderson

8) P012-5P SUNNYHILLBOY (IRE) 10-11-04 J P McManus Jonjo O’Neill

9) 1/46-P03 BALLABRIGGS (IRE) 12-11-04 Trevor Hemmings Donald McCain/Jason Maguire

10) 11-0620 TEAFORTHREE (IRE) 9-11-03 T437 Rebecca Curtis

11) 3-11201 ACROSS THE BAY (IRE) 9-11-02 Scotch Piper Syndicate Donald McCain/Henry Brooke

12) 1P3-02P JOIN TOGETHER (IRE) 8-11-02 Ian Fogg & Paul Barber Paul Nicholls/Daryl Jacob

13) 413-5211 COLBERT STATION (IRE) 9-11-01 J P McManus Ted Walsh IRE

14) 2P1536 FORPADYDEPLASTERER (IRE) 11-11-00 Goat Racing Syndicate Thomas Cooper IRE/Andrew McNamara

15) P1/B1F-1 ON HIS OWN (IRE) 9-11-00 Andrea & Graham Wylie Willie Mullins IRE/Ruby Walsh

16) 0-35233 JONCOL (IRE) 10-10-13 Kay Browne Paul Nolan IRE

17) P0F1-12 BALTHAZAR KING (IRE) 9-10-12 The Brushmakers Philip Hobbs

18) 1334-22 CAPPA BLEU (IRE) 11-10-11 William & Angela Rucker Evan Williams/Paul Moloney

19) 2/4-4U60 OSCAR TIME (IRE) 12-10-11 Robert Waley-Cohen/Sir Martin & Steve Broughton Martin Lynch IRE

20) 44001-00 ALWAYS WAINING (IRE) 12-10-10 Peter & Linda Douglas Peter Bowen

21) 15U-606 TATENEN (FR) 9-10-10 The Stewart Family Richard Rowe

22) 423F-01 TREACLE (IRE) 12-10-09 Bjorn Nielsen Tom Taaffe IRE/Andrew Lynch

23) 011611 LOST GLORY (NZ) 8-10-08 J P McManus Jonjo O’Neill

24) P-P1440 SWING BILL (FR) 12-10-08 David Johnson David Pipe/Conor O’Farrell

25) U01-F430 SAINT ARE (FR) 7-10-08 David Fox Tim Vaughan/Dougie Costello

26) B-0U631 CHICAGO GREY (IRE) 10-10-07 John Earls Gordon Elliott IRE

27) 010F-605 QUISCOVER FONTAINE (FR) 9-10-07 J P McManus Willie Mullins IRE

28) 3B0-643 RARE BOB (IRE) 11-10-06 D A Syndicate Dessie Hughes IRE/Bryan Cooper

29) 04-311P4 THE RAINBOW HUNTER 9-10-06 May We Never Be Found Out Partnership Kim Bailey

30) F-63PP5 BECAUSEICOULDNTSEE (IRE) 10-10-06 Noel Glynn Noel Glynn IRE/Martin Ferris

31) 12P-P00 HARRY THE VIKING 8-10-06 Sir Alex Ferguson, Ged Mason, Ron Wood & Peter Done Paul Nicholls /Ryan Mahon

32) 2360264 MR MOONSHINE (IRE) 9-10-05 April Strang-Steel, Douglas Pryde & Jim Beaumont Sue Smith/Peter Buchanan

33) 1133FP MUMBLES HEAD (IRE) 12-10-04 Patricia Thompson Peter Bowen/Jamie Moore

34) F2PP-44 PEARLYSTEPS 10-10-04 The Glazeley Partnership Henry Daly

35) 3F6042 NINETIETH MINUTE (IRE) 10-10-03 Dermot Cox Tom Taaffe IRE/Niall Madden

36) 0P45F5 AURORAS ENCORE (IRE) 11-10-03 Douglas Pryde, Jim Beaumont & D P van der Hoeven Sue Smith

37) P11420 TARQUINIUS (FR) 10-10-02 Richard Gilbert Gordon Elliott IRE

38) 614U40 ANY CURRENCY (IRE) 10-10-00 Cash Is King Martin Keighley/Ian Popham

39) 2P-265P MAJOR MALARKEY (IRE) 10-9-13 Baker, Dodd & Cooke Nigel Twiston-Davies/Tom Scudamore

40) 621B-001 SOLL 8-9-12 Derrick Mossop Jo Hughes/Mark Grant

41) /5000/P-P BACKSTAGE (FR) 11-9-12 MPR & Capranny Syndicate Gordon Elliott IRE

42) 023P25 VIKING BLOND (FR) 8-9-11 Caroline Mould Nigel Twiston-Davies

43) 2161-30 CLOUDY LANE 13-9-10 Trevor Hemmings Donald McCain

44) 000165 PENTIFFIC (NZ) 10-9-08 P Sinn, P Lawrence, L Sutcliffe, M Smith Venetia Williams

45) 0/44-060 GULLIBLE GORDON (IRE) 10-9-06 Yeh Man Partnership Peter Bowen

46) P-22150 MORTIMERS CROSS 12-9-06 John Needham John Needham

ROMANESCO (FR) 8-9-11 Gigginstown House Stud Gordon Elliott IRE nq

QUINZ (FR) 9-10-10 Andrew Cohen Philip Hobbs – taken out today

POKER DE SIVOLA (FR) 10-9-13 David Johnson Ferdy Murphy – scratched today

FANTASTIC JOHN SMITH’S GRAND NATIONAL MELLING CHASE ON FRIDAY

£200,000 John Smith’s Melling Chase 2m 4f Friday, April 5, 2013

NO. FORM HORSE AGE/WEIGHT TRAINER JOCKEY

1 2-1511 Cue Card 7-11-10 Colin Tizzard Joe Tizzard

2 211-46 Finian´s Rainbow 10-11-10 Nicky Henderson A P McCoy

3 1-1132 Flemenstar 8-11-10 Peter Casey AndrewLynch

4 3-1253 For Non Stop 8-11-10 Nick Williams Noel Fehily

5 R3042R Mad Moose 9-11-10 Nigel Twiston-Davies Sam Twiston-Davies

6 11-111 Sprinter Sacre 7-11-10 Nicky Henderson Barry Geraghty

GOING REMAINS THE SAME

The going remains the same at Aintree after another dry day. Selective watering was carried out today to maintain the current ground descriptions.

Grand National course- Good to Soft, Good in places
Mildmay & Hurdle courses – Good, Good to Soft in places

Andrew Tulloch, Regional Head of Racing North West and Clerk of the Course at Aintree, said this afternoon: “We have watered around fences 13 and 14 on the Grand National course

“It was a warm morning but has clouded over this afternoon. It is likely to be cloudy tomorrow as well.

“We will keep an eye on the ground going forward. If we need to water during the meeting, we can do as we have the necessary facilities. We will monitor everything tomorrow and see how things go. Saturday may be a bit warmer but also cloudier.

“We are not losing a lot of moisure in the ground because of plant growth or through evaporation

“We have had a hard winter and there has been little grass growth because of the low temperatures. The courses are looking great but we would have liked some grass growth.

“The advantage of the Grand National course is that we don’t race down the inside of it in December at the Becher meeting so there is plenty of fresh ground which has not been raced on for a year.”

FIRST HORSES TO ARRIVE FOR THE 2013 JOHN SMITHS’ GRAND NATIONAL MEETING

The first horse to arrive at Aintree for the 2013 John Smiths’ Grand National meeting was Whodoyouthink, trained by Oliver McKiernan on the Curragh, Co Kildare, Ireland.

Whodoyouthink, who reached Aintree yesterday evening (Tuesday), runs in the Grade One Betfred Bowl (2.30pm) tomorrow, Grand Opening Day, Thursday, April 4.

Others at Aintree include Mouse Morris’s charge, First Lieutenant, who also lines up in the Betfred Bowl, along with Quito De La Roque, trained by Colm Murphy, who hails from Gorey in Co Wexford, plus Carlito Briganti, trained by Gordon Elliott in Co Meath, who runs in the Grade One Betfred Manifesto Novices’ Chase (4.50pm, Thursday).

Co Meath trainer Peter Casey’s stable star Flemenstar arrived overnight and takes on Sprinter Sacre and Cue Card in the Grade Two John Smith’s Melling Chase on Ladies’ Day, Friday, April 5 at 3.05pm.

The first John Smiths’ Grand National runners are due to arrive at Aintree this evening.

FATHER HOPES DAUGHTERS AVOID EMERGENCY AND DEFY GRAVITY IN JOHN SMITH’S FOX HUNTERS’ AT AINTREE TOMORROW

Bedfordshire farmer Simon Andrews, who won the 1988 John Smith’s Fox Hunters’ Chase on Newnham, will be a proud spectator tomorrow when his two daughters line up in the famous ‘amateurs’ National’.

Gina, 21, takes her second ride in the race and again partners Emergency Cover, on who she was 10th last year, while Bridget, 19, makes her debut over the big fences when teaming up with Defying Gravity.

Their father admits: “Both girls have seen the video of me winning on Newnham a good few times – and no, it’s not in black and white!

“To be honest the girls have little chance of winning, but the same could be said of Newnham, who started as a 50/1 shot, and there was plenty of 66/1 on course. I had won point-to-points on him and we gave him a little practice in a Leicestershire maiden hunter chase when he was third, but he was the most brilliant jumper, and they needed to be at Aintree in those days.

“The following year I rode him in the Grand National and we finished 10th, and we later took him to America for the Maryland Hunt Cup. We fell at the fourth.

“We’ll walk the course in the morning, but there’s not much advice I can give. You just go out there and ride it like it’s another race. You give a horse a kick – rather than take a pull – because the ditches are wide, and if your horse takes to the place you are in for a fantastic ride. Both Gina and Bridget are on horses that have a reasonable chance of getting round and that would be a good achievement.”

Two previous winners are in the line-up among the 25 runners, namely Cloudy Lane, who won last year, and Silver Adonis, who teams up once again with Tom Weston, his rider when successful on 2010. Keenan’s Future, who was fourth last year, and Boxer Georg and Offshore Account, who were second and third in 2011, are others with experience of the contest.

Two riders – Sam Waley-Cohen and Katie Walsh – will be getting their eye in over the spruce fences before riding in Saturday’s John Smith’s Grand National. Walsh, third in last year’s big race on Seabass, rides his stablemate Battlefront – both horses are trained by Katie’s father Ted, while Battlefront is owned by her mother Helen. He had compiled nine straight wins in Irish point-to-points, but his winning sequence was ended when third in a hunter chase at Fairyhouse in February – the winner, Warne, is in opposition again tomorrow for trainer Brian Hamilton.

Waley-Cohen, who rides Oscar Time in the big one having finished runner-up on him to Ballabriggs in 2011, partners Cottage Oak for Cheshire trainer Joe O’Shea in the John Smith’s Fox Hunters’ Chase. The 10-year-old has the best recent form among the 25 runners having finished third in last month’s CGA Foxhunter Chase at the Cheltenham Festival when Paddy Gerety was in the saddle. Waley-Cohen’s Aintree experience and excellent record over the National fences has led to his booking.

John Ferguson, racing and bloodstock advisor to Sheikh Mohammed, saddles Earth Dream who will be a first ride over the fences for the trainer’s son, James, and while champion trainer Paul Nicholls saddles two runners he also faces opposition from his mother-in-law, Fiona Browne. Mrs Browne saddles Bold Addition, a very impressive winner of two hunter chases this season, while Nicholls calls upon Gwanako, the mount of Jody Sole, and Rebel Du Maquis, who is partnered by Britain’s reigning champion point-to-point rider Will Biddick.

Denman’s brother Silverburn, who was runner-up to Bold Addition on his latest outing, represents trainer Evan Williams, while another Welsh runner, Silver Story, is trained by Tim Vaughan’s brother, William.

Aintree chairman Lord Daresbury has an interest in the race via Cool Friend. He owns a leg in the mare and she is trained and ridden by his son Oliver, whose brother Thomas won the John Smith’s Fox Hunters’ Chase in 2009 on Trust Fund.

The 2013 John Smith’s Grand National

John Baker, Regional Director North West of Jockey Club Racecourses, will welcome the media to Aintree Racecourse at 12.25pm tomorrow in the media centre.

Five minutes later at 12.30pm, he will hold a press conference about the changes made to the Grand National course.

Please find below a summary of the changes and other measures in place for the 2013 John Smith’s Grand National, plus a document which was circulated to jockeys.

The changes Aintree has made to the course, in particular the Grand National fence frames, have received a wealth of positive publicity.

John Smith’s Grand National Key Points

The Grand National is woven into the fabric of British culture and, while the race is designed to be a unique and tough test, Aintree Racecourse ensures it is as fair and as safe as possible.

Nothing has greater importance to Aintree than the safety and welfare of horses and riders. The racecourse constantly strives to improve this further.

Aintree is conscious of the responsibility to ensure the Grand National is run as safely as possible, while maintaining the race as a unique sporting challenge.

The changes and investment made over recent years are good for the race and for racing.

Qualification

The minimum age for entries is seven.

All entries must have been placed first, second, third or fourth in a chase over three miles during their career.

The current rider eligibility criterion has been expanded to require at least 10 of the minimum 15 career wins to have been in chases.

Grand National start

Changes implemented to the Grand National start this year can be summarised as follows:

The start has been moved forward by around 90 yards for this year, away from the crowds and grandstands.

The “no-go” zone defined by a line on the track has been extended from 15 yards to around 30 yards from the starting tape this year.

The starter’s rostrum has moved this year to a position between starting tape and “no-go” zone to reduce potential for horses to get on top of the starting tape prematurely.

More user-friendly start tapes are being used this year, with increased visibility.

The BHA has been working with jockeys since the autumn in a concerted drive to alter jockey behaviour at jump starts, with the aim of redressing the sometimes much faster approaches towards the tape which can occur in bigger races. This has involved a more consistent methodology across the starters’ teams in the application and enforcement of the Rules at the start of a race.

A specific briefing between the starter’s team and jockeys takes place on Grand National day.

Additional measures have been put in place to minimise the possibility of a riderless horse travelling an extended distance before being caught prior to the start.

Fence cores

Aintree and the British Horseracing Authority have been involved in a three-year research and development programme looking at alternative fence construction for the Grand National course. This specifically focused on utilising materials other than the timber and protective rubber padding that used to make up the central frame of a fence.

Following the successful trial of prototype fences with a different frame at the Betfred Becher Chase meeting in December, Aintree now has 12 fences with plastic cores around the Grand National Course. The remaining three fences, which are open ditches, have had the wooden frames replaced by traditional birch.

Fence heights remain unchanged.

Becher’s Brook

Forming part of the racecourse’s on-going programme of works, Becher’s Brook has undergone further levelling of the wider landing zone, correcting the settlement which occurred following works carried out in 2011.

This has not changed either the dimensions or the character of the fences (the current drop, the difference in height between the level of the ground on take-off and landing, will remain at 10 inches on the inside of the course and six inches on the outside of the course).

Landing areas

Following the 2011 Review, the landing area of the first fence was levelled to smooth out undulations existing in the natural terrain. This process has now been extended to fences four, five and 13.

All works were carried out last summer to ensure time for the course to settle before the racing which took place in December of 2012.

Field size

Following the extensive 2011 Review into the Grand National, the BHA agreed to maintain the current safety factor at 40 horses. Detailed analysis in the 2012 annual review found no evidence that horses were unsighted when jumping fences. Through consultation with jockeys and trainers, there was general acknowledgement that the Grand National course is wide enough to accommodate the current number of runners. In fact, evidence does not suggest that changing the number of runners will have a positive effect on the race. During the 1990s, when average field size was 33 runners, a reduced percentage of fallers was not recorded.

Further watering investments

To enable the Aintree team to deliver its commitment to producing the safest jumping ground possible, in addition to the £150,000 invested in 2011, a further £100,000 was invested after last year’s race in further improving the watering system to ensure Aintree continues to deliver the best possible ground for jumping.

Riderless horses

Following investments in 2009 to create bypassing lanes and a catching pen at Canal Turn, an additional catching pen has been created for this year in the region of fence four to assist in the catching of riderless horses and mitigate the risk of injury if running loose.

Parade

There are new arrangements for the parading runners in the John Smith’s Grand National on Saturday (April 6) at Aintree.

In order to reduce the time that horses are saddled and mounted prior to the start, horses will not be sorted into racecard order on the course.

Instead, horses numbered 1-20 will be saddled in the pre-parade ring and horses 21 to 40 in the stables.

There will be Aintree and BHA personnel in the stables and pre-parade ring, assisting to place horses in number order.

This will hopefully mean that horses will enter the parade ring in number order, and then also leave the parade ring in number order. Once on the course, the parade will commence immediately.

Aintree has produced a joint submission in association with the Professional Jockey Association, which is detailed below.

This has been sent to all jockeys in the UK and made available to jockeys in Ireland, including amateurs.

The vital part our Jockeys play in the 2013 John Smith’s Grand National

This year, probably more than ever before, the eyes of the world will be focused on Aintree Racecourse when the tape rises for the start of the 2013 Grand National meeting at Aintree tomorrow.

Aintree Racecourse has consulted owners and trainers too and would now like to detail to jockeys just how vital their role is.

Facts which may surprise you

*An average of 53 per cent of all National falls and 28 per cent of unseats occur before Foinavon first time. That is one and a half minutes into a nine-minute plus race.

*In 2012, the slowest horse to the first fence was the close second Sunnyhillboy and the winner Neptune Collonges was 12th slowest.

*Sunnyhillboy was travelling five mph slower than the fastest horse to the first, Giles Cross.

*Little Josh was the fastest horse to the first in the Topham Chase, yet was travelling at the same speed as the slowest horse in the Grand National, Sunnyhillboy.

*All horses will be carrying speed tags as they did in 2012.

Course Changes

1. The fence frames have all changed from the wooden frames to EasyFix plastic birch dressed, as before with spruce. Open ditches are birch, dressed with spruce. This means that the fences are kinder if a horse makes a mistake.

2. The height and width of all fences is exactly as before so to all intents and purposes they are the same except, as we say, more horse friendly.

PLEASE NOTE:
New Grand National fences have been erected at David Pipe’s, Malton, Lambourn and the Curragh.

3. For the Grand National, the start has been moved forward 90 yards to create a quieter environment and hopefully reduce the tension for all concerned. The line will be well back from the tape and jockeys will be requested to line up at or on the line, prior to the starter starting the race.

4. Running rails have been realigned at Becher’s, Foinavon, and Canal Turn. There will be an additional catching pen at the fourth fence.

Jockeys should note that the shortest route from Becher’s to Foinavon and the Canal Turn is actually mid to outer.

5. One of the beauties of the Grand National course is the width and we encourage all jockeys to walk the course beforehand.

The Parade

The parade concept will change. Horses will not be required to sort themselves out into race card order in front of the stands.

Horses will instead be sorted into number order in the parade ring and this will be facilitated by horses 1-20 being saddled in the pre-parade ring and 21-40 in the stables.

Horses will then leave the parade ring in number order, turn left on to the course and commence the parade immediately. If any horse has lost its place, the parade will continue as is and any horse out of order will stay in the position found.

Horses then parade as normal, canter down to the first and then back behind the start line.

Welfare and other facts to remember

*Six hundred million people watch the race worldwide.

*It is an iconic sporting event and the most watched annual sporting event on TV

*The race is being run for the 166th time and is part of our heritage.

*It is racing’s shop window and we know jockeys do, and need to continue to, show the race great respect.

*Each and every participant – jockeys, trainers and owners – has a personal responsibility

*We know yours and your horse’s welfare is uppermost in your mind -please be aware of public perception.

*At the end of the race all unplaced horses must remain mounted until in the wash down area.

*At the start please respect the starter and his team. False starts – regardless of whose fault they are – suit nobody and create an appalling impression.

*Please remember: the early pace.

Pre-race Briefing

As last year, there will be briefing well before racing starts on Saturday and all jockeys riding in the Grand National will be required to attend.

We are all ambassadors for the race. We all need to savour the day and together you can do your profession and our sport proud.

As  ever, I’m indebted to Racenews for providing the above content

Don’t bet a loser in the National before it even starts – avoid SP betting

The recent guest article from Geoff Banks drew quite a bit of interest. Geoff sent me another one, which is a bit more technical, so I thought I’d write an article on how the world Geoff works in affects the one most readers will be familiar with – the betting shop, the online punt, the odds your horse wins (or loses) at.

Geoff is one of the traditional bookies you see at a track, standing on a stool, ‘shouting the odds’ in the betting ring.

For those unfamiliar with the impact the on-course betting ring (where all the individual bookmakers stand, competing for your money) has on day-to-day prices in betting shops and online, here’s a potted explanation centred on the Grand National.

Hopefully it will stop you betting at SP in future Nationals, as well as giving you some background if you choose to read Geoff’s latest article.

“What’s the SP?” An expression that’s made its way into everyday speech in some parts of the UK. It means, ‘What’s the news on a particular matter, what is the conclusion, how did it finish.”

The saying originated in betting. SP stands for Starting Price, the odds that are used to settle  off-track bets placed in shops or online (unless you’ve taken a previously agreed ‘early price’ or ‘board price’).  The SP matters.  A lot. It’s the equivalent of declaring a share price in a market. Those holding  ’share options’ – winning betting tickets, collect at the rate decreed by the SP. Bets cannot be settled until the SP is known.

So who decides what the SP is for each race, and how?

Although the bulk of bets on any horse race, perhaps up to 99%, are placed away from the racecourse – online, in High St shops or by phone – the prices on offer by the bookies, like Geoff Banks, who stand at the racetrack offering odds, are the prices which determine the SP.

But not all bookmakers’ prices are monitored to decide on the SP. The Starting Price Regulatory Committee employ agents who use a sample of between 6 and 24 track bookmakers to decide SPs (at poorly attended race meetings that sample is permitted to drop to a minimum of 3).

The agents (SP validators) monitoring the sample of bookmakers are impartial. Their job is to favour neither punter nor bookmakers when deciding the price.

The criteria the agents use is:

The starting price for each horse is the market price at the off generally available to good money on the boards of those bookmakers in a sample whose each-way terms for a given race most closely reflect the each-way terms on offer for that race in the off-course retail market.

“Good money” is defined thus:

Generally that offered by a Starting Price Qualified Bookmaker who, in the judgment of the SP Validator following consultation with the Betting Operator, is prepared to lay a single bet to lose at least £500 on each horse in a scheduled race at that meeting.

So, supposing there are £10 million pounds worth of winning bets in Saturday’s Grand National: the winner has been on offer at the track at odds of around 16/1 to 18/1 among the 24 sampled bookmakers. The SP agents, who use software to access the prices these bookmakers have been offering, might decide that 18/1 was marginally the dominant price. Declaring an SP of 18/1 rather than 16/1, in this example, costs the bookmakers £180m rather than £160m.

Off-course (retail) bookmaking is a huge business – worth many billions. If you were the boss of Hills or Ladbrokes and a two point difference in the SP could cost you an awful lot of money, what would you do? You would find out which horses were being bet most with you and you’d then send someone to a racecourse to bet those horses in the hope of shortening the SP and therefore your financial liability.

And that is exactly what big bookmakers do, especially at major meetings like Cheltenham or Aintree. But the problem Ladbrokes/Hills have is that they do not know the identity (at least they are not supposed to know) of the bookmakers being used as a sample that day by the SP agents.

It’s a bit like the old stories from the pop business of record execs finding out which sample of record shops were being used by the compilers of the charts. They’d then send people to buy hundreds of records at each of these shops.

Here is a concrete example from 2010. On the morning of the Grand National, Don’t Push It, the eventual winner, was on offer at 20/1. It was the mount of AP McCoy and many of the once-a-year punters latched on to it leaving the major High St bookies with large liabilities. Those bookies had their team on-course at Aintree pour money onto Don’t Push It in the five minutes or so before the off. The SP was seriously affected by that exercise and Don’t Push It was returned at 10/1, saving the big bookies a comparative fortune.

Don’t Push It’s SP on Betfair – an exchange which matches punter against punter and takes the bookmaker out of the middle – was 18/1.

This is not unusual for the Grand National. On-course punters that day are often very inexperienced and will simply bet their fancy without trying to work out the value of doing so at the price on offer.  On-course bookmakers can’t be blamed, I suppose, for taking advantage of this; the equivalent of holiday cost being much higher during school breaks. If there’s one thing better for businesses than a captive market, it’s a captive market of rookies.

The overall value a punter gets from the SP in each race is measured by what is called the overround. Each price represents a percentage value – for example 1/1 is 50%, 5/1 is 16.7%: these are supposed to reflect the percentage chance of that horse winning. The bookmaker’s intention is to have every horse in the race priced so that the total hits 100% + his profit margin. That margin is called the overround.

The Cheltenham Gold Cup is a big betting race, but many racegoers at Cheltenham are knowledgeable on betting and a have a strong feel for value.

The overrounds in the past five Gold Cups on the left, those on the Grand National, on the right:

113/152

120/155

119/155

116/146

117/147

A stark example of the effect of weight of money placed by professionals attempting perfectly legal price manipulation. In most betting markets, the shortening of one price leads to the lengthening of another. The figures above show that such a system worked well at Cheltenham, but worked poorly (from the punter’s viewpoint) at Aintree.

Aintree bookmakers might plead that the pure volume of business, especially in the run-up to the off of the National makes it very difficult to alter prices – all their time is spent taking bets. But the Cheltenham betting ring is also manic and they seem to have little problem adjusting prices there.

Anyway, beware on Saturday. If you don’t put your bet on before then, do not take SP on the day – take an ‘early price’.

From a value viewpoint, a number of bookmakers are offering ¼ the win odds on EW bets for the first 5 places. Betvictor offers first 6 places although, as Geoff points out in his article, many of these concessions are blunted by the reduction in overall pricing of all horses, thus boosting that bookie’s profit margin, his overround.

As for tips on the race, I’ll be posting mine in the middle of the week. My current shortlist, along with best prices available, and, in order of my preference is:

Join Together  20/1

Teaforthree  16/1

Colbert Station  12/1

Quel Esprit  50/1

Saint Are 50/1

Ninetieth Minute 100/1

I’m certain (on the basis of this article alone) Join Together will start a fair bit shorter than 20/1 and I think he is very good value with Totesport/Betfred.

And for all Betvictor has chopped most prices to compensate for paying 6 places, he is biggest on Ninetieth Minute who has a quirky style of running and who jumps carefully. He’s the type who will either decide early in the race it is not for him, or one who will pick his way round and might well run on late to finish in the first 6.

Betvictor also offers non-runner-no-bet, so Ninetieth Minute (his last run in England brought a win at the Cheltenham festival) is worth a small EW bet.

A best odds check can be seen here

Good luck

Joe

Bookie Geoff Banks wants big changes in the betting ring

Geoff’s last guest article drew quite a bit of interest. He sent me this one, worth reading for the passion and plain-speaking alone, although it is a bit ‘technical’ for the everyday racing fan. To find out a bit more about how Geoff’s business works, you might want to read this one before reading Geoff’s.

My last blog about modern day racing, and its sanitized ways, seemed to attract a lot of attention or hits as they say apparently. And more than a few compliments from like-minded souls, or perhaps concerned, individuals on Twitter. It’s hard to be humble when you’re as great as I am…in future my rate for such scribing shall be ten pounds an article, and I’m not budging from that.

What was absent – was the contra view. Which I expected from trainers and connections of horses boxed away in padded cells for months on end- awaiting their glory moment. Shame that. However, all is not lost. I did receive one rather hateful response from a fellah describing himself rather grandly as ‘a proper Bookmaker’ who ranted about my attitudes to modern day betting rings. He wasn’t quite brave enough to tell us all who he was, doubtless of the view should he reveal his true identity, some would have realized the true worth of his business practices.  Few punters thoroughly approve of modern day Bookmakers. The horrible truth: exchanges are the ‘good guys’ wherever they trade from. Who’s going to criticize someone for low liquidity when you’re part of the problem?

It’s perhaps helpful if I illustrate the problems as I see it in the modern ring, for those who do not understand the issues. Anyone who goes racing, midweek in particular, can’t have failed to notice the distressed state of the ring. A handful of Bookies, usually with just one member of staff each, huddling for warmth whilst serving but a few customers. In an environment where racetracks claim attendances overall are holding up, it’s a paradox that rings are so quiet. Of course, were I the RCA, I’d be talking up the product. And yes, if they don’t address the problem of stable stars retiring as 3 year olds or worse sitting out for Cheltenham, they’re going to have attendance issues, we’re agreed on that. On a Saturday, and at the major meetings however, the crowds still look good to me, but the public aren’t betting as they used to.

Or perhaps they are. I mean who goes racing these days and doesn’t have a bet? Racing’s pretty dull if you don’t have some kind of interest other than an anoraky view of form or breeding. Why does the Queen have so many ladies in waiting when she’s in attendance? Quite right, they’re running her bets out! She’s no fool. Loves a Union Jack does the Boss. Everyone’s having a play in reality. Because if you’re racing, and not betting, you must be wondering what all the fuss and noise is about!

As to the Punters, they’re just getting bored. 98% of Bookies these days have turned to trading as a simple and cheap method of making a living. From the moment the interminably ignorant Rob Hughes, of the then controlling Levy Board, cast his vote in favour of opening up the Ring to outside influences-in particular exchanges, the die was cast for the Bookies. Led by ‘pioneers’ like Martyn of Leicester, who I recall describing it as the new Holy Grail to me one day.

Many leapt from odds, percentages and margins, to trading every dollar they took with an exchange, at better odds. Presto, easy money – minimal risk. At the outset the gap between the odds offered by the trader and the exchange was wide, and the method simple. It was a golden time. As the years progressed, with traders chasing a diminishing pound, and their own silly greed for every bet available, the odds soared to the punters. Traders found with what profits could be engendered, squeezed so tight, they couldn’t breathe. Even when the crowds were good, they moronically bet so tight to the exchange, the profits, if at all, were derisory.

In the same period, liquidity on exchanges fell markedly. Now we had a situation where Traders would offer 7/1 about a horse trading at 8.2 on the exchange but only to £20. Lord-A-Mighty if someone asked for a couple of hundred each way- a bet far larger than they could stand, trade or even dump with the few proper Bookmakers betting to opinions. Casually they knocked the larger punters back, without thought for their future. They turned to following the exchange win price, but restricting the place returns, making something off of that book instead, tossing casually away years of agreements and the code laid down by Tattersalls.

This code was, and still is, respected in betting shops and credit offices and even improved upon. They laid off staff, and finally stopped going in some cases, altogether. So when ‘a proper Bookmaker’ tells me I shouldn’t be going about criticizing their business plan, I have to laugh. Proof of the pudding is in the eating. It gives me little pleasure to be proven totally right. I said this operandi would fail on every platform available to me, to whoever would listen and many who would not. If there’s no work – you’ve failed.

I’ve covered the traders, what about the views of my customers? First off, make no mistake, I like a laugh with my punters, especially when they lose – but I don’t mind the jibes when I do either! It’s part of the fun of betting with the old enemy. Because I am, the old enemy in all but age… I still offer odds which reflect my views and I don’t knock back bets from genuine punters, ever.

Why aren’t the punters flocking to a ring where they can very often beat an exchange price and pay no commission? Because my friends, like me, they’re so famously bored of a ring with rows of Bookmakers betting like soldiers – all offering the same odds. There’s no variety or choice. It’s uniform and drab. Worse it’s an exchange driven Cartel. Most Punters believe the Bookmakers win, whatever the result. If everyone has the same price- it appears like price fixing. They disapprove of restrictive practices such as 1/5^th odds on the National, and traders who dress as if they’ve just stepped out of their front rooms.

And worse, they just want the fun of a bet. It really makes little difference to them whether a horse is 5/1 or 4/1 when the nags are toiling up the straight. One of the loudest punters in the ring I love, little Tommy, makes the most noise. He doesn’t bet big, but to him it’s still the buzz, and I love him for his enthusiasm. These days, customers are afforded little of the respect of past days, when Giants like John Banks and Stephen Little battled them with a smile, a thumping bet at their odds, and a tie.

I offer two thoughts for punters at this stage, out of balance. If you moan about poor place odds and you give those Traders who offer them your fiver each way at 1/5 the odds on the Cambridgeshire because they are 17/2 about something which is 8/1 elsewhere, then you’ve only yourselves to blame for supporting them, in any race.  I believe you should identify the culprits and never bet with them, period. That’s how you rid the ring of scoundrels without the business acumen to appreciate exchanges aren’t the savior, but their death knell. Oh, and tell your friends.

Second, although I enjoyed the banter from Big Mac, even if it occasionally made no sense, the culture of moreism always has a price, go for service over value, every time. Think I fly Ryanair if British Airways head in the same direction?

Fine, I’ve given my thoughts. What of the future? For those leading Bookmakers these days, and for the empty vessels in the ring, standing looking at the tumbleweed, bitching away, and blaming everyone but themselves for the problems, I offer these solutions.

Number one; allow the racetracks to dictate the terms of business in the rings. Fundamentally to restore order on place markets, introduce a guaranteed minimum lay to lose amount for each ring. This stops traders betting to pennies, offering unsustainable odds, and knocking back the larger punters. It’s so tiresome to hear dinosaurs claim tracks ‘shouldn’t be allowed to dictate the terms of business.

What a narrow view, especially as even now, they already do! It’s hardly in the favour of racetracks to do away with the draw of their betting rings, is it? Chesterbet is a success, but only in parallel with Bookmakers bringing the punters to play into the track in the first place. On their own, and without a ring, tracks – whilst they can deliver on the bet at more restrictive odds – can’t deliver on the flavour and atmosphere people in this country enjoy about the ring so much.

Think that Simon Bazalgette and Charles Barnett are rubbing their hands with a go it alone approach? They’re no fools. They would prefer a symbiotic relationship. Every time we say no to their requests for improved service standards, they become just a little more unsympathetic to our problems. They will naturally turn their vast expertise in running business, into taking Betting under their wings and employing people like me to show them how it’s done successfully. And yes, I would, if the alternative is to stand amongst a bunch of fiddlers trading dollars in their jeans.

Number two, for racetrack bosses. Extinguish the cosy little relationship between RDT (betting software provider for on-course bookies) and Betdaq (betting exchange), with software capable of skillfully enabling traders to hive off bets at lightning speed to the exchange. Do away with track Broadband & Wi-Fi altogether. Outlaw data cards, secondary laptops and hand held PDA’s for Bookmakers. No, it’s not air tight, but it does go an awful long way to restricting the ability to trade with exchanges. Especially at festival meetings where mobile phone networks like Vodafone do a total runner.

Fundamentally, switch off the exchange displays on laptops provided by companies such as RDT and return rings to a lower tech environment. Give serious pause for what I’m advocating if you value a vibrant ring, its draw and income. Stop worrying about losing a few traders who do not approve of restrictions. Believe me, they’re no loss! Enfin, if you’re showing exchange odds on a big screen at your Racetrack, you’re doing yourselves no favours. It isn’t about price.

Number three Bookies, get into the modern day age of cashless societies and find Bank’s willing to offer the new fast generations of swipe debit cards to enable punters to bet without the need to queue for hours and days at cash points.

I accept there will be a variety of views out there to this. If you’re a hard working Bookie, you have my respect for your efforts, but you’re going nowhere, if you don’t adapt, and you know this is true. If you’re the blinkered sort, who believes the Son of John Banks got here through luck rather than focusing on service standards. Or if you’re worried someone else in the ring on a mobile will break the mould and have a huge mass of punters at his joint, whilst you have nothing, then you’re missed the point.

Geoff Banks

It is greed, and an unworkable long term business plan that got you here in the first place. You have to work as a collective, rather than a series of individuals, and you have to act now and stop thinking of what’s good for you, but what’s best for the customers you’ve lost. The tracks have the power to lay down sensible practices, if you’d only let them. One thing’s absolutely for sure, the one you’re using right now has failed, miserably. I don’t think anyone could argue with that. For those that view some of the points as ‘legally challengeable’. I point you to the free for all 2008 Gambling Act. Good luck in Court trying to get a decision as to what is, or isn’t legal anymore, because the Gambling Commission certainly can’t.

One final point, Bookies. Just a few years ago, many of these points were laid down by the NJPC articles. I don’t recall anyone at that time complaining, or challenging the terms. We can change, and we must, if the whole shebang doesn’t migrate to GoodwoodBet in a very short time.

Geoff Banks

March 2013

Join Together Factfile for 2013 Grand National

JOIN TOGETHER (IRE) FACTFILE
b g Old Vic – Open Cry (IRE) (Montelimar (USA))
8-11-02 Form: 321P/F11P3-72P
Owner: Ian Fogg & Paul Barber Trainer: Paul Nicholls Breeder: J D Flood

I’m grateful to Racenews for supplying factfiles for every runner in the John Smith’s Grand National. I reformat these and publish as I get them, with the first batch coming out 2 weeks before the big race on April 6th. By the eve of the National all factfiles will be published here. You can find others by clicking on the factfiles tag at the foot of this post

Join Together
Join Together, born on March 16, 2005, started his career in Ireland under the care of Liam Burke, a good friend of part-owners Paul and Marianne Barber. After winning a maiden point-to-point at Inch in March, 2010, the son of Old Vic was transferred to the powerful stable of British champion trainer Paul Nicholls, for whom he finished third on his debut under Rules in an Exeter novices’ hurdle in November of the same year.

He filled the runner-up spot in a three-mile Grade Two novices’ hurdle at Cheltenham’s International meeting a month later before registering a straightforward success over the same distance at Chepstow in February, 2011. Join Together lined up in the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle at the 2011 Cheltenham Festival but failed to land a blow and was pulled up behind future Betfred Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Bobs Worth. Sent chasing for the 2011/2012 campaign, Join Together made an inauspicious start over the larger obstacles at Chepstow in October, 2011, as he fell five fences from home. He made amends on his next outing at The Open at Cheltenham the following month, when he got the better of future Welsh National runner-up Teaforthree in an extended three-mile novices’ chase.

Join Together followed up with another impressive success at Cheltenham in December, 2011, but he again failed to make an impact at The Festival in 2012, as he was pulled up behind Bobs Worth, this time in the RSA Chase. He ended the season with a better effort at Aintree’s John Smith’s Grand National meeting, coming home third behind stable companion Silviniaco Conti in the John Smith’s Mildmay Novices’ Chase. Join Together has made three appearances in valuable staying handicap chases so far this term, starting with an unlucky seventh in the United House Gold Cup at Ascot in November, in which he was hampered three fences out. He enjoyed his first taste of the Grand National fences in the Betfred Becher Handicap Chase at Aintree on December 8, as he stayed on strongly to go down by a neck to Hello Bud in the three and a quarter mile contest.

Join Together warmed up for the John Smith’s Grand National with a disappointing effort in Doncaster’s Grimthorpe Chase on March 2, when he was pulled up after being badly hampered at the third fence. Race Record: Starts: 12; 1st: 3; 2nd: 2; 3rd: 2; Win & Place prize money: £65,183

Owners
Paul Barber and Ian Fogg
Paul Barber’s family have farmed near Ditcheat since the 1830s and he oversees a 2,000-strong dairy herd on 3,000 acres, having started with 150 cows on 150 acres, which now produce 45 tonnes of cheese daily for Barbers and Maryland Farmhouse Cheese, run by Paul’s brother Nicholas.

Paul – who has been allergic to cheese since the age of five – was born on December 31, 1942, on the kitchen table in the house where he still lives, stating “I’ve never thought about living elsewhere” and despite no family involvement with racing, has been an owner since his purchase in 1958 of a horse that cost £450 and had to be paid for instalments. He has never owned a Flat horse and his first winner was Crazy Slave, who scored in 1963, and his main flagbearers have been the 2008 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Denman (owned with Maggie Findlay) and the 1999 scorer See More Business.

He paid £82,000 for Denman and refuses to pay over the odds for a horse after being stung when making a couple of expensive purchases following See More Business’s success. Others to carry his colours include See More Indians, who won eight races out of 14, and the John Thorne-trained Artifice. Barber owns Nicholls’s Manor Farm Stables, initially converted from a cow shed, and his house overlooked Denman’s stable. Many of his best performers have had an initial grounding in point-to-points, either with Liam Burke in Ireland or Barber’s brother Richard – who has trained four Festival winners – at Seaborough in Dorset. Ian Fogg, 66, became an owner after moving to Ditcheat with wife Wendy in 2010.

He is involved with six horses with Nicholls and owns the winning point-to-pointer Scotch Dry And Ice, a 175,000 euros store horse purchase, with Richard Barber. He founded the Vacancy Management Company in 2001 and is the managing director of the business, which is a pharmaceutical and health care recruitment and contract employment company. He previously built up the RDL Group between 1989 and 1997 to have 650 employees before selling the company to American interests.
John Smith’s Grand National Record (Paul Barber): 1996 Deep Bramble (PU bef 29th); 1998 General Crack (PU bef 11th); 2009 Big Fella Thanks (6th); 2010 Big Fella Thanks (4th)

Trainer
Paul Nicholls (Ditcheat, Somerset)
Seven-time champion jump trainer Paul Nicholls was born at Lydney, Gloucestershire, April 17, 1962 and grew up in Olveston near Bristol. He has been training at Manor Farm Stables in Ditcheat, Somerset, since taking out a licence on November 1, 1991. The policeman’s son started out in racing as a jump jockey and partnered 119 winners between 1980 and 1989, with his biggest British successes coming in the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury on Broadheath (1986) and Playschool (1987), who also captured the 1988 Vincent O’Brien (Irish) Gold Cup with Paul up. He struggled to keep his weight down and gave up race riding.

Between 1989 and 1991, he was assistant trainer to David Barons, who trained Boardheath and Playschool and sent out Seagram to win the 1991 Grand National at Aintree during that time. He has always trained at Paul Barber’s Manor Farm, initially with just eight horses. Nicholls, who now has over 200 horses in training, quickly made his mark as a trainer with an early highlight coming on Saturday, November 7, 1998, when pulling off the amazing feat of saddling seven winners and three seconds from 10 runners and he later made history when he became the first trainer to saddle six winners on the same card, at Wincanton, his local track, on January 21, 2006.

Another early high point in his training career came at the 1999 Cheltenham Festival when he captured the major chase on each of the three days – Flagship Uberalles scored in the Racing Post Arkle Chase, Call Equiname in the Sportingbet Queen Mother Champion Chase the following day and, best of all, See More Business took the Betfred Cheltenham Gold Cup. Having strongly challenged Martin Pipe for the jump trainers’ championship over a number of years, most notably when pushing his great rival right to the last day of the 2004/05 campaign, Nicholls claimed his first title the following season and he has retained the title every season since, though he is in a fight for supremacy this season with Nicky Henderson.

Recent flag-bearers for Nicholls have included the brilliant 16-time Grade One winner Kauto Star, who became the first horse to win the William Hill King George VI Chase five times and the only chaser to regain the Betfred Cheltenham Gold Cup at the Cheltenham Festival (2007 & 2009). Denman captured the 2008 Betfred Cheltenham Gold Cup and twice defied top weight to win the Hennessy Gold Cup, while Master Minded gained eight Grade One victories including two renewals of the Sportingbet Queen Mother Champion Chase. Big Buck’s has also entered the record books with 17 consecutive wins over hurdles, beating Sir Ken’s record of 16 set between 1951 and 1953, headed by an unprecedented four successive victories in the Ladbrokes World Hurdle.

Nicholls celebrated a first victory in the Stan James Champion Hurdle with Rock On Ruby last year and he is currently fourth on the all time list of trainers at the Cheltenham Festival with 33 wins to his name. He became the first trainer to accrue more than £4 million in a season in 2007/08 and recorded his 2,000th winner at Down Royal on November 5, 2011, 20 years after taking out his training licence, making him the quickest to reach this landmark figure in jump racing. After saddling 52 runners in the John Smith’s Grand National, Nicholls finally recorded his first success in the great race in 2012 as Neptune Collonges beat Sunnyhillboy by a nose – the smallest winning margin in the history of the contest.

John Smith’s Grand National Record: 1992 Just So (6th); 1996 Vicompt De Valmont (10th), Deep Bramble (PU bef 2 out), Brackenfield (UR 19th); 1997 Straight Talk (Fell 14th); 1998 What A Hand (Fell 1st), Court Melody (Fell 6th), General Crack (PU 11th); 1999 Strong Chairman (15th), Double Thriller (Fell 1st), 2000 Earthmover (Fell 4th), Torduff Express (Fell 13th), Flaked Oats (Fell 20th), Escartefigue (UR 30th); 2001 Earthmover (Fell 4th); 2002 Murt’s Man (PU bef 17th), Ad Hoc (BD 27th); 2003 Montifault (5th), Fadalko (UR 6th), Ad Hoc (UR 19th), Shotgun Willy (PU bef 22nd), Torduff Express (UR 27th); 2004 Exit To Wave (PU bef 9th); 2005 Royal Auclair (2nd), Heros Collonges (8th), L’Aventure (15th), Ad Hoc (Fell 22nd); 2006 Royal Auclair (Fell 1st), Le Roi Miguel (PU bef 19th), Cornish Rebel (PU bef 19th), Silver Birch (Fell 15th), Le Duc (UR 8th), Heros Collonges (UR 15th); 2007 Royal Auclair (Fell 9th), Le Duc (UR 6th), Eurotrek (PU bef 22nd), Thisthatandtother (PU bef 30th); 2008 Cornish Sett (12th), Mr Pointment (PU bef last), Turko (Fell 25th); 2009 My Will (3rd), Big Fella Thanks (6th), Cornish Sett (17th), Eurotrek (PU 17th); 2010 Big Fella Thanks (4th), Tricky Trickster (9th), My Will (Fell 4th), Nozic (UR 20th); 2011 Niche Market (5th), Ornais (Fell 4th), The Tother One (Fell 6th), What A Friend (PU 27th); 2012 NEPTUNE COLLONGES (WON).

Prince De Beauchene Factfile for 2013 Grand National

PRINCE DE BEAUCHENE (FR) FACTFILE

b g French Glory – Chipie D’Angron (FR) (Grand Tesor (FR))

10-11-07 Form: 13311/321/271/U5351/51-12 Owner: Andrea & Graham Wylie

Trainer: Willie Mullins IRE Breeder: Raymond Bellanger

I’m grateful to Racenews for supplying factfiles for every runner in the John Smith’s Grand National. I reformat these and publish as I get them, with the first batch coming out 2 weeks before the big race on April 6th. By the eve of the National all factfiles will be published here. You can find others by clicking on the factfiles tag at the foot of this post

Prince De Beauchene

Prince De Beauchene, born on March 23, 2003, is out of Raymond Bellanger’s Chipie D’Angron and is a half-brother to 2007 Welsh Grand National winner Miko De Beauchene and this season’s Classic Chase scorer Rigadin De Beauchene. His racing career started in France and he won on two of his three starts in AQPS Flat races before a comfortable victory on his second chase start at Pau in December, 2007.

After finishing third in a chase at Auteuil in May, 2008, he was bought for 200,000 euros at Arqana’s Vente d’Ete in July by Bobby O’Ryan on behalf of Andrea and Graham Wylie and sent to trainer Howard Johnson. Prince De Beauchene made an encouraging debut for connections when second in an introductory hurdle at Kelso in November, 2008, and got off the mark two months later in a two and a half mile novices’ hurdle at Ayr. He didn’t run again that season and, after finishing second in an extended three-mile handicap chase at Carlisle on his reappearance, he disappointed in the Peter Marsh Chase at Haydock in February, 2010.

After a short break, he got back to winning ways in valuable two and a half mile handicap chase at Haydock in April. The 2010/2011 started poorly, as Prince De Beauchene unseated his rider in a graduation chase at Carlisle in November before failing to make an impact in handicap chases at Newbury and Chepstow. The lightly-raced horse showed promise when a close fifth in the Greatwood Gold Cup at Newbury in March and duly built on that the following month with a gusty victory in the Listed John Smith’s Handicap Chase over three miles and a furlong of the Mildmay course at Aintree’s John Smith’s Grand National meeting.

Howard Johnson was banned from racing for four years in August, 2011, and as a result, Prince De Beauchene was one of seven horses owned by Andrea and Graham Wylie sent to Irish champion jump trainer Willie Mullins. He was favourite for the hugely competitive Troytown Handicap Chase at Navan in November, 2011, and ran a respectable race to finish fifth. Despite this slight reverse, he was stepped up to Grade Two company in the Bobbyjo Chase at Fairyhouse on February 25, 2012, and rewarded favourite backers with an easy six-length success.

That display propelled him to the head of the ante-post markets for the 2012 John Smith’s Grand National but he was ruled out of the showpiece two weeks before with a stress fracture of the ilium (hip area). The 10-year-old returned this season with an impressive three-length victory in a two mile, three furlong hurdle contest at Limerick on December 27, 2012. He completed his preparation for this year’s John Smith’s Grand National with second behind the classy Roi Du Mee in the Bobbyjo Chase on February 23.

Race Record: Starts: 20; Wins: 8; 2nd: 3; 3rd: 4; Win & Place Prize Money: £144,156

Owners

Andrea & Graham Wylie

Multi-millionaire Graham Wylie, 53, made his money in the computer software industry. After graduating from Newcastle University in 1980 with a degree in computer science and statistics, he founded Sage in 1981 with David Goldman, Phil Lever and Paul Muller, selling accountancy software. The company grew through acquisition, floated on the stock exchange in 1989 and continued to get bigger. After stepping down as managing director of Sage in May, 2003, Wylie sold a number of his shares and gained over £120 million.

Wylie is the son of Scottish parents – his father was a coalminer from Stirling and his mother a seamstress from Hawick, where Wylie was born in 1959. A huge Newcastle United fan, he married his second wife Andrea Stone at Slaley Hall, Northumberland in May, 2003 – the event was described as the “north-east’s wedding of the decade,” and was attended by over 250 guests, including Alan Shearer and Sir Bobby Robson. Pop superstar Ronan Keating performed at the couple’s wedding (for a reputed £175,000), singing When You Say Nothing At All, from the 1999 film Notting Hill, which the couple saw on their first date. The first horse the pair owned – a flashy grey picked out at Howard Johnson’s County Durham stable – was Lord Transcend, named after Andrea’s hair and beauty salon in Hexham.

Lord Transcend won at 33/1 on his debut at Newcastle in March, 2002, and went on to prove himself a high-class horse over hurdles and fences, winning six times in all, before a leg injury sustained at Haydock in January, 2006, cut short his racing career. Having caught the ‘racing bug’ through the success of Lord Transcend, Graham and Andrea Wylie invested millions of pounds and built up a large string in training with Howard Johnson. At Doncaster’s 2003 May Sale, Graham Wylie set a then record for a jump horse when paying 340,000 guineas for Royal Rosa, which was a wedding present for his wife.

He enjoyed a superb Cheltenham Festival in 2005, taking the Ladbrokes World Hurdle with Inglis Drever, the William Hill Supreme Novices’ Hurdle with Arcalis and the Neptune Investment Management Novices’ Hurdle with No Refuge. In 2007, Inglis Drever reclaimed his Ladbrokes World Hurdle title and in 2008 became the first horse to win the race for a third time. Inglis Drever’s Ladbrokes World Hurdle triumph was the highlight of a fantastic 2008 Cheltenham Festival for the Wylies as Tidal Bay also won the Racing Post Arkle Chase. Howard Johnson was banned from racing for four years in August, 2011, and as a result, the Wylies reduced their 60-strong string in half and sent 12 to British jump champion Paul Nicholls and seven to Irish jump champion Willie Mullins. The partnership with both trainers has flourished, with Nicholls sending out Tidal Bay to win a number of big prizes including this season’s Grade One Lexus Chase, while Mullins has saddled Boston Bob and Back In Focus to win Grade One novice chases since the turn of the year.

The latter also formed part of a double for Mullins and the Wylies at this year’s Cheltenham Festival, with Back In Focus winning the John Oaksey National Hunt Chase and Briar Hill storming home to land the Weatherbys Champion Bumper. Graham Wylie founded a new company, Technology Services Group (TSG), in 2003. He owns Close House Country Club and golf course and Gosforth Shopping Centre, and was awarded a CBE for his services to industry in the 2004 New Year’s Honours list. Graham’s contribution to the North East region has been acknowledged by the award of honorary doctorates by both the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and Northumbrian University, and the freedom of the city of Newcastle. The Sunday Times Rich List in 2012 estimated he is worth £180 million.

The Wylies live close to Hexham in Northumberland and Andrea, 40, has also excelled at showing dogs (www.transcendshowdogs.com), another interest they share, winning the best of breed prize at Crufts this year with her Maltese dog Hi-Lite Come Dance With Me. The couple’s twin daughters Kiera and Zahra were born in December, 2009. Kiera was born with a defective heart, which has led the Wylies to fund raise for the heart unit at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital among other charitable endeavours. On His Own ran last year at Aintree in the colours of Semore Kurdi after the north-east businessman purchased a one-day lease of the horse in a charity auction in May, 2011.

Graham Wylie had originally intended to lease Prince De Beauchene, also trained by Willie Mullins but an injury to his leading hope stopped that intention. Wylie offered the prize to raise money for the Children’s Heart Unit Fund at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital, where his daughter Kiera underwent three major and successful operations.

John Smith’s Grand National Record: 2007 Bewleys Berry (Fell 22nd); 2008 Bewleys Berry (5th), Backbeat (Fell 2nd); 2010 Royal Rosa (UR 14th); 2011 Tidal Bay (UR 10th); 2012 On His Own (leased for the day & Fell 22nd)

Trainer

Willie Mullins IRE (Bagenalstown, County Carlow) 

Willie Mullins

Born on September 15, 1956, Willie Mullins was six-time amateur champion rider in Ireland and his major successes in the saddle included the 1983 John Smith’s Fox Hunters’ Chase at Aintree on Atha Cliath when the also-rans were partnered by the likes of Robert Waley-Cohen, chairman of Cheltenham Racecourse, and Aintree chairman Lord Daresbury. He took out a training licence in 1988 and is now the country’s pre-eminent jump handler. As a jockey in the John Smith’s Grand National, his rides included The Ladys Master, who ran out in 1983, and Hazy Dawn, who fell at the sixth the following year.

He hails from one of Ireland’s most famous racing families, being a son of the late Paddy Mullins, the outstanding all-round trainer whose most famous star was Dawn Run, winner of the 1984 Champion Hurdle and 1986 Cheltenham Gold Cup. Willie Mullins rode and trained Wither Or Which to win the 1996 Weatherbys Champion Bumper, the Cheltenham Festival race in which he has enjoyed eight winners as a trainer (also Florida Pearl 1997, Alexander Banquet 1998, Joe Cullen 2000, Missed That 2005, Cousin Vinny 2008, Champagne Fever 2012 and Briar Hill 2013). Mullins’ best chaser to date has been Florida Pearl, who was placed in two Cheltenham Gold Cups, won the 1998 RSA Chase, the 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2004 Irish Hennessy Cognac Gold Cups in Ireland as well as the 2001 King George VI Chase and the 2002 Betfred Bowl at Aintree.

He trains the brilliant Hurricane Fly who has won the Stan James Champion Hurdle in 2011 and 2013. He has saddled 29 winners at the Cheltenham Festival, more than any other Irish handler in history. Mullins has over 150 horses at his Closutton yard near Bagenalstown in Co Carlow and his first John Smith’s Grand National runner as a trainer, Micko’s Dream, fell at the first in 2000. The loquacious Mullins, a former chairman of the Irish Trainers’ Federation, also suffered heartache in 2004 when Hedgehunter departed at the final fence in the John Smith’s Grand National when looking assured of a place.

He overcame bad luck in the race the following year when Hedgehunter came home 14 lengths clear of Royal Auclair. He has been champion Irish jump trainer for the past five seasons and is on course for a sixth title in 2012/2013 after surpassing Aidan O’Brien’s total of 155 winners in a season with a double at Fairyhouse on February 23.

John Smith’s Grand National Record: 2000 Micko’s Dream (Fell 1st); 2002 Alexander Banquet (UR 6th); 2004 Alexander Banquet (Fell 18th), Hedgehunter (Fell 30th); 2005 HEDGEHUNTER (WON); 2006 Hedgehunter (2nd); 2007 Hedgehunter (9th), Homer Wells (PU bef 22nd), Bothar Na (PU bef 29th), Livingstonebramble (UR 6th); 2008 Snowy Morning (3rd), Hedgehunter (13th); 2009 Snowy Morning (9th), Irish Invader (11th); 2010 Snowy Morning (6th), Arbor Supreme (UR 15th); 2011 The Midnight Club (6th), Dooney’s Gate (Fell 6th), Arbor Supreme (Fell 28 th); 2012 The Midnight Club (11th), Quiscover Fontaine (Fell 17th), On His Own (Fell 22nd)

On His Own Factfile for the 2013 Grand National

ON HIS OWN (IRE) FACTFILE

b g Presenting – Shuil Na Mhuire (IRE) (Roselier (FR))

9-11-00 Form: 10/414P1/B1F-1 Owner: Andrea & Graham Wylie

Trainer: Willie Mullins IRE Breeder: Margaret Treacy

I’m grateful to Racenews for supplying factfiles for every runner in the John Smith’s Grand National. I reformat these and publish as I get them, with the first batch coming out 2 weeks before the big race on April 6th. By the eve of the National all factfiles will be published here. You can find others by clicking on the factfiles tag at the foot of this post

 

On His Own

On His Own, born on July 10, 2004, was bred by Margaret Treacy from Killeagh, Co Cork. and made a winning debut for owner/trainer Oliver McKiernan in a point-to-point at Maralin, Ireland, in October, 2009, and the Presenting gelding also enjoyed a winning start to his career under Rules when taking a Leopardstown bumper in December of the same year. He was bought by trainer Howard Johnson, acting on behalf of Andrea and Graham Wylie, for a then-record £240,000 at Brightwells’ January Sale at Cheltenham in January, 2010.

On His Own was pitched into Grade One company for his first start for the Wylies and Johnson but faded to come home 18th of 24 behind Cue Card in the Weatherbys Champion Bumper at the 2010 Cheltenham Festival. He made just one start over hurdles, finishing fourth behind Bobs Worth in a Cheltenham novices’ hurdle on New Year’s Day, 2011, before a successful debut over fences two weeks later with a comfortable success over previous Scottish Grand National runner-up Nine De Sivola in a beginners’ chase at Musselburgh. He was pulled up in the National Hunt Chase at the 2011 Cheltenham Festival but ended the season on a high note with an impressive victory in a novices’ handicap chase at Ayr’s Scottish National meeting.

On His Own was transferred to the care of Willie Mullins for the start of the 2011/2012 season, after Johnson was disqualified from training. He was brought down when beaten at the penultimate fence in the valuable Paddy Power Chase at Leopardstown on December 27, 2011, his first start for Ireland’s champion trainer.

The lightly-raced horse was well fancied for last season’s John Smith’s Grand National after being the easy 13-length winner of the Thyestes Chase at Gowran Park in January, 2012, but fell when still travelling well at Becher’s Brook on the second circuit. Connections were encouraged by that performance and he has been trained for Aintree showpiece again this season. He annexed the Grade Two Boyne Hurdle over an extended two and a half miles on his seasonal return at Navan on February 19 and is 8/1 ante-post favourite (March 22) for the John Smith’s Grand National, with official betting partner Betfred.

Race Record: Starts: 11; Wins: 5; 2nd: -; 3rd: -; Win & Place Prize Money: £86,894

 

Owners

Andrea & Graham Wylie

Multi-millionaire Graham Wylie, 53, made his money in the computer software industry. After graduating from Newcastle University in 1980 with a degree in computer science and statistics, he founded Sage in 1981 with David Goldman, Phil Lever and Paul Muller, selling accountancy software. The company grew through acquisition, floated on the stock exchange in 1989 and continued to get bigger. After stepping down as managing director of Sage in May, 2003, Wylie sold a number of his shares and gained over £120 million.

Wylie is the son of Scottish parents – his father was a coalminer from Stirling and his mother a seamstress from Hawick, where Wylie was born in 1959. A huge Newcastle United fan, he married his second wife Andrea Stone at Slaley Hall, Northumberland in May, 2003 – the event was described as the “north-east’s wedding of the decade,” and was attended by over 250 guests, including Alan Shearer and Sir Bobby Robson. Pop superstar Ronan Keating performed at the couple’s wedding (for a reputed £175,000), singing When You Say Nothing At All, from the 1999 film Notting Hill, which the couple saw on their first date. The first horse the pair owned – a flashy grey picked out at Howard Johnson’s County Durham stable – was Lord Transcend, named after Andrea’s hair and beauty salon in Hexham.

Lord Transcend won at 33/1 on his debut at Newcastle in March, 2002, and went on to prove himself a high-class horse over hurdles and fences, winning six times in all, before a leg injury sustained at Haydock in January, 2006, cut short his racing career. Having caught the ‘racing bug’ through the success of Lord Transcend, Graham and Andrea Wylie invested millions of pounds and built up a large string in training with Howard Johnson. At Doncaster’s 2003 May Sale, Graham Wylie set a then record for a jump horse when paying 340,000 guineas for Royal Rosa, which was a wedding present for his wife.

He enjoyed a superb Cheltenham Festival in 2005, taking the Ladbrokes World Hurdle with Inglis Drever, the William Hill Supreme Novices’ Hurdle with Arcalis and the Neptune Investment Management Novices’ Hurdle with No Refuge. In 2007, Inglis Drever reclaimed his Ladbrokes World Hurdle title and in 2008 became the first horse to win the race for a third time. Inglis Drever’s Ladbrokes World Hurdle triumph was the highlight of a fantastic 2008 Cheltenham Festival for the Wylies as Tidal Bay also won the Racing Post Arkle Chase. Howard Johnson was banned from racing for four years in August, 2011, and as a result, the Wylies reduced their 60-strong string in half and sent 12 to British jump champion Paul Nicholls and seven to Irish jump champion Willie Mullins. The partnership with both trainers has flourished, with Nicholls sending out Tidal Bay to win a number of big prizes including this season’s Grade One Lexus Chase, while Mullins has saddled Boston Bob and Back In Focus to win Grade One novice chases since the turn of the year.

The latter also formed part of a double for Mullins and the Wylies at this year’s Cheltenham Festival, with Back In Focus winning the John Oaksey National Hunt Chase and Briar Hill storming home to land the Weatherbys Champion Bumper. Graham Wylie founded a new company, Technology Services Group (TSG), in 2003. He owns Close House Country Club and golf course and Gosforth Shopping Centre, and was awarded a CBE for his services to industry in the 2004 New Year’s Honours list. Graham’s contribution to the North East region has been acknowledged by the award of honorary doctorates by both the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and Northumbrian University, and the freedom of the city of Newcastle. The Sunday Times Rich List in 2012 estimated he is worth £180 million.

The Wylies live close to Hexham in Northumberland and Andrea, 40, has also excelled at showing dogs (www.transcendshowdogs.com), another interest they share, winning the best of breed prize at Crufts this year with her Maltese dog Hi-Lite Come Dance With Me. The couple’s twin daughters Kiera and Zahra were born in December, 2009. Kiera was born with a defective heart, which has led the Wylies to fund raise for the heart unit at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital among other charitable endeavours. On His Own ran last year at Aintree in the colours of Semore Kurdi after the north-east businessman purchased a one-day lease of the horse in a charity auction in May, 2011.

Graham Wylie had originally intended to lease Prince De Beauchene, also trained by Willie Mullins but an injury to his leading hope stopped that intention. Wylie offered the prize to raise money for the Children’s Heart Unit Fund at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital, where his daughter Kiera underwent three major and successful operations.

John Smith’s Grand National Record: 2007 Bewleys Berry (Fell 22nd); 2008 Bewleys Berry (5th), Backbeat (Fell 2nd); 2010 Royal Rosa (UR 14th); 2011 Tidal Bay (UR 10th); 2012 On His Own (leased for the day & Fell 22nd)

Trainer

Willie Mullins IRE (Bagenalstown, County Carlow)

Born on September 15, 1956, Willie Mullins was six-time amateur champion rider in Ireland and his major successes in the saddle included the 1983 John Smith’s Fox Hunters’ Chase at Aintree on Atha Cliath when the also-rans were partnered by the likes of Robert Waley-Cohen, chairman of Cheltenham Racecourse, and Aintree chairman Lord Daresbury. He took out a training licence in 1988 and is now the country’s pre-eminent jump handler. As a jockey in the John Smith’s Grand National, his rides included The Ladys Master, who ran out in 1983, and Hazy Dawn, who fell at the sixth the following year.

He hails from one of Ireland’s most famous racing families, being a son of the late Paddy Mullins, the outstanding all-round trainer whose most famous star was Dawn Run, winner of the 1984 Champion Hurdle and 1986 Cheltenham Gold Cup. Willie Mullins rode and trained Wither Or Which to win the 1996 Weatherbys Champion Bumper, the Cheltenham Festival race in which he has enjoyed eight winners as a trainer (also Florida Pearl 1997, Alexander Banquet 1998, Joe Cullen 2000, Missed That 2005, Cousin Vinny 2008, Champagne Fever 2012 and Briar Hill 2013). Mullins’ best chaser to date has been Florida Pearl, who was placed in two Cheltenham Gold Cups, won the 1998 RSA Chase, the 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2004 Irish Hennessy Cognac Gold Cups in Ireland as well as the 2001 King George VI Chase and the 2002 Betfred Bowl at Aintree.

He trains the brilliant Hurricane Fly who has won the Stan James Champion Hurdle in 2011 and 2013. He has saddled 29 winners at the Cheltenham Festival, more than any other Irish handler in history. Mullins has over 150 horses at his Closutton yard near Bagenalstown in Co Carlow and his first John Smith’s Grand National runner as a trainer, Micko’s Dream, fell at the first in 2000. The loquacious Mullins, a former chairman of the Irish Trainers’ Federation, also suffered heartache in 2004 when Hedgehunter departed at the final fence in the John Smith’s Grand National when looking assured of a place.

He overcame bad luck in the race the following year when Hedgehunter came home 14 lengths clear of Royal Auclair. He has been champion Irish jump trainer for the past five seasons and is on course for a sixth title in 2012/2013 after surpassing Aidan O’Brien’s total of 155 winners in a season with a double at Fairyhouse on February 23.

John Smith’s Grand National Record: 2000 Micko’s Dream (Fell 1st); 2002 Alexander Banquet (UR 6th); 2004 Alexander Banquet (Fell 18th), Hedgehunter (Fell 30th); 2005 HEDGEHUNTER (WON); 2006 Hedgehunter (2nd); 2007 Hedgehunter (9th), Homer Wells (PU bef 22nd), Bothar Na (PU bef 29th), Livingstonebramble (UR 6th); 2008 Snowy Morning (3rd), Hedgehunter (13th); 2009 Snowy Morning (9th), Irish Invader (11th); 2010 Snowy Morning (6th), Arbor Supreme (UR 15th); 2011 The Midnight Club (6th), Dooney’s Gate (Fell 6th), Arbor Supreme (Fell 28 th); 2012 The Midnight Club (11th), Quiscover Fontaine (Fell 17th), On His Own (Fell 22nd)