It's Strange The Horses You Remember
One idea comes to mind when looking at this year's Randox Health Grand National: romance is well and really dead.
There seem to be less stories like the ones that made me fall for the race as a kid, every one weaving a strand of magic into the field and revealing that one day, if we're fortunate enough, among us might stand amongst the sport's giants in the parade ring.
It's weird the horses you remember. There was Dream Alliance, who was bred for peanuts in a South Wales allocation and conquered pioneering stem cell treatment for his working-class owners, or Ballyholland, the Galway Plate winner named after and followed by a tiny village in Northern Ireland.
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Then there were the Aintree regulars. Whether it was my beloved Black Apalachi, State Of Play or Saint Are, the exact same grizzled muzzles would return year after year to punch it out up the Elbow. Hello Bud was still winging around the well-known spruce fences as a 14-year-old, with a baby-faced Sam Twiston-Davies just a handful of years his senior.
The dreamers amongst us will be supporting the old-school stayer Mr Vango and his eccentric trainer Sara Bradstock this year, or Oscars Brother and his two-horse Tipperary fitness instructor Connor King, but the race has actually progressed to the point where those horses are the exception rather than the guideline.
Mr Vango couldn't even protect a run in the race in 2015 regardless of winning the London National, Peter Marsh and Midlands Grand National earlier in the season, while Oscars Brother will run in the silks of JP McManus having previously been owned by the unheralded Mak King Racing Syndicate.
While the changes to the race have actually been welcomed to improve security, the National is now essentially an elite staying chase and tends to be dominated by the very same highflying trainers and owners. The dream of having an Aintree runner is slipping from the majority of our grasps.
That is especially the case if you are English, as a horse from these shores hasn't triumphed in more than a years, with Scottish fitness instructor Lucinda Russell the only one to have actually made an effect from Britain in that time.
It's a similar story for female jockeys. Gone are the days when Nina Carberry and Katie Walsh were reserved on horses with genuine chances and, while Rachael Blackmore shattered the glass ceiling in 2021, it will be a while before we see her like once again.
It was hoped the William Hill Half A Mil initiative would invigorate the competitiveness en route to the race by using a ₤ 500,000 perk to any horse who might win it and among 3 identified trials, however only one horse has a chance of attempting the accomplishment.
Becher Chase winner Twig needs 11 horses to come out to be guaranteed a run while Grand Geste, winner of the Grand National Trial at Haydock, would not have a hope in hell of lining up off in a modern National off a mark of 134 even if he was entered.
The other qualifying race, the Classic Chase, wasn't even deemed worth restaging when it was lost to bad weather condition in January, making it even harder for the conventional National types to compete.
The race is simply unrecognisable from the one numerous people remember, and that unhappiness is compounded when the entire sport seems to be heading in the very same elitist instructions.
A French fancy to continue side
It's that time of year when we can start to look forward to Guineas weekend - Aidan O'Brien certainly is as his Albert Einstein shot to 2,000 Guineas favouritism recently.
The son of Wootton Bassett hasn't been seen because winning the Marble Hill Stakes over six furlongs last May, and O'Brien hasn't won the race because 2019, so I'm not in a rush to back him at 7-2.
It's always a fun obstacle trying to pre-empt the market in races like this and, while there are a multitude of threats involved, I am keen to keep the French colt Take Me On in my great books at 33-1.
He looked something special when making a winning launching in a ₤ 19,000 maiden at Deauville in October. He initially raced in an unwinded design however perhaps something upset him as he absolutely took off with Mickael Barzalona quickly afterwards, the jockey eventually letting him circle the field and lead.
Despite losing important energy in the first two-thirds of the mile contest, Take Me On had adequate energy to conveniently maintain a five-length gap to his pursuers, including the Andre Fabre-trained Wertheimer-owned favourite Rumoriste.
He recorded a Racing Post Rating of 92, a figure greater than Albert Einstein, Bow Echo, Publish and Gewan attained on their first start, and hopefully he can take a significant in a trial as he boasts entries in both the Prix Djebel and Prix de Fontainebleau next month.
The last 3 winners of the 2,000 Guineas all had a current run of sorts, and if Take Me On can reveal a bit more professionalism this time then his odds will definitely topple for Newmarket given the owner's bloodstock agent, Morten Buskop, suggested he was heading that method in a current interview.
His pedigree isn't that of the typical Newmarket winner as he is by Lope De Vega, but Shadow Of Light ran very well for that sire when third last year and Take Me On has actually already proved he stays the trip, so there are worse candidates to take a leaflet on.
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