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The Grand National has not exactly been a race for favourites in recent years with just one winner – Tiger Roll in 2019 – bearing the tag in the previous 11 runnings. A Scottish-owned horse carries the status into tomorrow's feature at Aintree but fortunately for Corach Rambler, his Kinross-based trainer Lucinda Russell knows a thing or two about what it takes to win National Hunt racing's Holy Grail, having done just that with One For Arthur in 2017.
Corach Rambler's tale is a marrow-warming one in what has been a year of mourning for Russell. In January, she lost her 95-year-old father, Peter, then One For Arthur died last month, just six years after his Aintree triumph.
Russell, of course, knows all about sorrow having experienced the brutally sad death of her Cheltenham Festival winner Brindisi Breeze in May 2012, then that of her stable jockey Campbell Gillies who died while on holiday in Corfu a few weeks later.
The history of the Grand National is filled with plenty of triumph-over-adversity stories: Bob Champion defeating testicular cancer to win on Aldaniti in 1981; Rule The World overcoming not one but two pelvis breaks to prevail in 2016 (the horse's winning trainer, Mouse Morris, had lost his son to suspected carbon monoxide poisoning in Argentina); then there was Jenny Pittman, who became the first woman to train a National winner in 1983 with Corbiere while Rachel Blackmore became the first female jockey to ride last year's winner Minella Times.
Corach Rambler's story has followed a rather more straightforward line but it is no less inspiring. How the horse came to be lining up at Aintree is worthy of some of those Hollywood plots detailed above. Two wins in successive years at the Cheltenham Festival, one of which included last month's successful defence of the Ultima Handicap, have demonstrated he is a worthy favourite and also vindicated former champion jockey Peter Scudamore's insistence in 2020 that Russell try to buy a horse that Scudamore – Russell's partner – liked the look of. Existing investors at Russell's Arlary House yard were invited to stump up £3000 to cover the £17,000 asking price, meanwhile a few new ones were sought. A seven-owner syndicate soon came together and comprised an exiled Scot who lives in Australia who just happens to be called William Wallace, one part-owner is a widower who bought a share because he believed it was what his late wife would have wanted, another is a student at Heriot-Watt University who only began watching horse racing during the pandemic – and there's also an accountant and a golf company driver in the group. It is an eclectic mix but, ultimately, this is a tale of everyday folk.
"We are just normal people, this is a once in a lifetime thing," says the accountant, 32-year-old Thomas Kendall.
"Corach was the price of a mid-range car and he has won almost £200,000 and given us two days at the [Cheltenham] Festival we will never forget," adds Cameron Sword, the 21-year-old student. "We had to pinch ourselves when we were there with owners who have spent millions on the sport.”
Should Derek Fox take the ride it would add another plot twist to the story – the 30-year-old has been a doubt for the job since falling from Rowdy Rustler at Wetherby at the start of the month which aggravated an existing shoulder problem.
So, what are Corach Rambler's chances of becoming only the fifth favourite to win the National this century? The historical trends point towards another lucrative day for The Rambler syndicate. The most compelling stats show that horses aged eight or older have a great chance, as do horses carrying 10st 13lbs or less, which are rated 137 or more by the handicapper, have at least one win over three miles and have had a run no more than 55 days ago – Corach Rambler is at the top of the list of eight who tick each of those boxes.
Russell has said One For Arthur had a transformative effect on her career when he won six years ago, and says Corach Rambler has done likewise for the syndicate.
“Arthur changed my life and this horse has been the same for his owners, the happiness he’s brought and what he’s done for them.”
The National is not a race for the greatest horses but a win for Corach Rambler at Aintree tomorrow will add another compelling chapter to the story of horse racing's greatest race.
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