GRAND NATIONAL 1839, BARTON SNOW, LULAMBA & PROTEKTORAT.

The following is an excerpt from 'National Heroes' by Reg Green. 'This was a brook, eight-feet wide, and approached across a ploughed field with strong, high palings bordering a jagged hedge on the take-off side of the water. Conrad hit the woodwork, throwing his rider over and into the brook beyond and although the gallant captain remounted when the rest of the field had passed, he fell again two fences later, exiting forever from the records of the race. The brook which gave him his soaking would thereafter and always be known as Becher's Brook.

The mare Charity came to grief at the treacherous wall in front of the stands, which was the halfway point and on the second circuit the Irish horse Rust was eliminated from the competition through an act of foul play on the part of a section of the crowd. Their money obviously laid elsewhere, they simply blocked him in a lane, refusing to allow him progress.'

The race has come a long way since its inaugural staging, won by Lottery who is thought to have jumped the last hurdle with a leap of 30-feet. Yes, in its early days the final two obstacles were hurdles. It is a far better race than at any time in its first 50-years, and doubtless less treacherous than the period bewteen the two World wars. It also remains different to any other race during the season, except, of course, those run over the National fences, the Grand Sefton, the Becher Chase, the Foxhunters and the Topham. By the by, Captain Becher has both a fence, once notorious but now a fence like any other at Aintree, and a valuable race named in his honour, though the Becher Chase may be named after the fence, not the rider, yet his name is perserved in racing history even though he achieved nothing more noteworthy than being dumped in a brook! He is better celebrated than Red Rum, Fred Winter, Manifesto or Richard Dunwoody. Valentines is named after a horse of the same name who first went to refuse and in a sudden change of heart cleared the fence in a corkscrew manner.

I am looking forward to the race tomorrow and from this day forth I have pledged to accept the race as it has become and will try to be more positively-minded toward it. I shall, though, continue to refer to it as the Aintree National. I hope all who compete in the race, human and equine, return safe and sound, with Panic Attack first past the post.

The breeder, and I believe part-owner, of Barton Snow, the easiest winner of an Aintree Foxhunters you will ever see, hopes to see his horse in the Aintree National next season. I hope so, too, as this is exactly what the modern version of the race needs - the romance of a David with a single shot in his sling taking on the might of the Goliaths. I would imagine, given he has only thus far competed in hunter chases, that his rating would be far too low to get into the race and to achieve the dream the horse would have to go into training with a professional trainer and would need to be tried in race's like the Coral Trophy or Welsh National in order to boost his official mark. One thing is for sure, there is not a trainer in the land who would turn down the opportunity to have him in their stable. A potentially brilliant horse, even though he is nine already. Surprisingly, his present trainer, Joe O'Shea, believes he has one better than Barton Snow. Boley Bob is the name, a name worth rememberin, a horse so good the trainer will risk another heart attack for.

Nico de Boinville is one of the great jockeys of our time. Just look at his c.v. and you find all the evidence required to support this claim. It may have looked like he fell off Lulamba yesterday like a right plonker but he would needed to have defied the laws of physics and gravity to stay united with his horse. Every great rider, no matter the equine discipline, has greeted the rising ground when to observers it looked easier to stay in the saddle, and that can be at a walk, trot, canter, gallop or when jumping a fence. Keyboard warriors with no experience of jumping a fence at speed have no right to talk through their pockets and their social prejudice, to aim their underarm rhetoric at someone as successful and as respected by his peers as Nico de Boinville. If you disagree my view on this matter, f... off with you. Respect all, it is the only way to a peaceful society.

Oh, and we should all try to remember that Lulamba is only 5. He has the world at his feet, and did anyone notice how even riderless he continued to race and to jump as if he did not want to put to waste all that Nico has taught him. Lulamba has all the potential to be up there in the same Seven Barrows Hall of Fame as Sprinter Sacre and Constitution Hill.

The form book says, perhaps, in a way, correctly, that Jango Baie brushed Protektorat aside with ease yesterday. What must be remembered is that Jango Baie is a young horse with few miles on the clock. Protektorat is eleven, with a large number of miles in his legs. The Skeltons are justifiably proud of their stable star and already has his retirement in hand. There will be no Cheltenham or Aintree for him next season. He will retire, all things being equal, at Windsor after, crossed-fingers, he has won a third Fleur-de-Lys Chase.