Jump racing’s dominant trainer Willie Mullins won the Randox Grand National with 7-1 joint favorite I Am Maximus for champion owner JP McManus, but don’t think for a second that this was a colorless result traditional of the great race.
The reason audiences love this Aintree spectacular is because it offers stories full of heroism, romance and occasional heartbreak.
It’s an annual sports melodrama. It even inspired a feature film about Bob Champion’s 1981 victory over Aldaniti after recovering from cancer, and yesterday a new chapter was written, but again tinged with sadness.
I Am Maximus, ridden by Paul Townend, did not always race in the McManus colour. It was once owned by the late Salford businessman Mike Grech, who named it after his wife Maxine, after his racing director, three-time Cheltenham Gold Cup-winning trainer Henrietta Knight, purchased it for him .
Originally trained by Nicky Henderson, Grech moved I Am Maximus to Mullins when he moved his horses to Ireland. The gelding was then sold to McManus just before winning the Irish Grand National in April last year, when Grech was forced to sell his rope, just five months before his death at the age of 63. .
Joint favorite I Am Maximus triumphed by seven and a half lengths at Aintree on Saturday
Knight, speaking from his Oxfordshire stable, said: “I saw this horse when I was three and fell in love with him at the Costello farm (in Ireland), where I bought Best Mate and had to have him. Mike even flew in by helicopter to “All he ever wanted was to have a rider in the Grand National, let alone think about winning it. Maxine and his five children are at Aintree today. It’s all very emotional.”
Henderson must have felt a pang of regret watching the race, who never won the Grand National during his illustrious career.
He advised Mullins, now in pole position to win his first British Trainers’ Championship thanks to the £500,000 first prize, to “put his hand up” for I Am Maximus knowing that the gelding was extremely talented despite having a good number of peculiarities. .
The 17-time champion Irish trainer believes the eight-year-old is capable of holding his own in next season’s Cheltenham Gold Cup. Mullins, who won the 2005 Grand National with Hedgehunter and had had 48 runners since without success before saddling eight entrants yesterday, said: “I had said before the race that we don’t know how good this horse is.” I thought he was still a little bit ahead of the handicap and he has shown it. He is quirky but learning all the time. Nicky could see the talent he had, we just had to cultivate it.
At home there is nothing special. If you saw it in the field you wouldn’t make any comments, but it obviously has an engine. We believe he can go all the way and be a Gold Cup horse.
‘Paul gave him an excellent walk around the interior. He could be seen looking for the gaps between the last two fences. When he got it, he set it on fire.
That was an understatement. Jumping the final fence I Am Maximus, whose jump had had a couple of serious imperfections, still had half a dozen horses in front of him and it didn’t seem obvious that he was going to pass them.
But at The Elbow, in the iconic shoot, the turbo kicked in and he raced away from Delta Work, with teammate Minella Indo at 28-1 in third.
It was the first Grand National win for Townend, 33, who also claimed the Cheltenham Gold Cup last month for the fourth time with the Mullins-trained Galopin Des Champs. He is the seventh jockey to win both races in the same season and the first since Jim Culloty in 2002.
Townend said: “The Gold Cup is the Gold Cup, but the Grand Nationals are a bit different and you need a lot of luck.” I can not believe it. I’m a lucky boy. It’s what every young person with a pony wants to do.
Yesterday’s race was also characterized by a relative lack of incidents. Twenty-one of the 32 entrants finished and with only two of the 30 fences remaining, 22 horses were close enough to pose a challenge.
In those final stages hopes arose that eventual fifth and first British home runner Kitty’s Light could deliver a fairytale victory for trainer Christian Williams, while Rachael Blackmore must have thought a second victory was within reach with Minella Indo.
Corach Rambler’s bid for back-to-back Grand National wins ended at the first fence
In total, 21 of the 32 participants completed the race, the highest number since 1992.
Latenightpass finished 12th, but by a few paces looked capable of winning for jockey Gina Andrews and her husband, trainer Tom Ellis. But then Maximus’s speed came into play.
The big disappointment was that the Lucinda Russell-trained 2023 winner Corach Rambler only made it as far as the first fence, unseating Derek Fox.
But Russell managed to salvage something positive: “He just jumped the first fence.”
But for him everything is fine. The owners believe getting him back safely this time is as good a feeling as winning last year.’