horse of the year.

​When Tiger Roll won the Grand National, indeed before he past the winning post, as he came to the Elbow still full of running, the thought crossed my mind that the ‘Horse of the Year’ award was as good as on its way to Giggingstown. Yet when the nominations were announced in the Racing Post the other day something unusual occurred, at least for me, someone who takes decision by instinct and occasionally whimsy – I gave the matter consideration.
It took me ten seconds, I will admit, to whittle the five worthy candidates down to two and through the rest of the morning I swung this way and that in favour of Tiger Roll – how can anyone vote against a two-time Grand National winner – and Frodon.
I rejected Altior, as special as he is, on the grounds that he won the races expected of him and without any sort of meaningful opposition. Next season will be different, of course, as his opposition will be meaningful to the point of spillage. Next season we will really discover, God-willing, if you believe in deities, how mighty Altior truly is.
I rejected Paisley Park as his story concerns his owner more than the horse he owns. That may be belittling Paisley Park, and though it is doubtless damning him with faint praise I would put him third in this contest above Altior.
Cyrname was brilliant on occasions, though not so much for me to rate him above the other four nominations, and his rating as the best chaser in the country is plainly ridiculous and only adds weight to my belief that ratings are ‘silly’. In a previous piece I described ratings as ‘bollocks’ though I have since promised myself not to be so vulgar next time I write scathingly on the subject.
What won me to Frodon’s corner was remembering Bryony, on pulling up after the Ryanair, saying, ‘this is for him, chaps’ and proceeding to give one of the greatest victory orations in the history of sport. Bryony told everyone with ears that her success was due almost entirely to the horses she had the honour of partnering, and though The Times and other newspapers cropped Frodon out of the pictures that appeared on either the front page or inside pages, completely ignoring the message Bryony was putting across to the world, it was the horse who had put our sport on those pages.
It is to be expected that the Grand National winner will receive media coverage the following day but what Frodon achieved was refreshing and exhilarating as it was unexpected. He kicked off what will forever be dubbed ‘the golden hour’. Brough Scott described the Ryanair as the most memorable horse race of his lifetime. Some accolade. Frodon created history on behalf of his rider, while the magnificent Tiger Roll only equalled an historic event. The story as last season was the journey Frodon took Bryony Frost on. She was already the burgeoning star of our sport, Black Corton, Present Man and Milansbar were responsible for bringing her to everyone’s attention, but it was Frodon who elevated her to the position she now holds as the most loved jockey of the modern era. Without Frodon, and of course his loyal owner and brilliant trainer, Bryony would not have achieved her place in National Hunt history as the first female to win a Grade 1 at the Cheltenham Festival. It is why I believe he deserves to be crowned ‘Horse of the Year’.
Having cast my vote in Frodon’s favour, I don’t expect him to win the trophy for his owner and I will not begrudge or complain when Tiger Roll is announced as the winner next weekend. He is truly a horse of a lifetime– a horse that deserves to be compared to the equine icon that is Red Rum, and I never thought for a moment I would ever be able to say that about any horse.
Yet do you remember Frodon’s leap at the open ditch at Cheltenham, the way he rallied between the last two fences and drew away up the hill to the winning post?