Neptune Collonges

Great last race for this horse!  He has been retired with full honors.  I would never have selected him, as I never felt he was doing much recently, I just thought he would be retired at the end of the  season - how wrong was I!  I read also that only one horse had won the grand national in 1961 too!  I've just checked the name of that horse:  Nicolaus Silver.    However I just discovered there was another grey horse called The Lamb back in 1868 who won the race!!!! 

I watched Neptune come third in the Cheltenham Gold Cup when I visited the course in 2008, in fact I have a painting on my wall with him in the paddock that I painted when he came third to Kauto Star. It was an amazing day.  I'm so pleased for him to go out with an amazing Victory.

I love reading up about horses, as I had never heard about the Lamb before.   This horse won the National not once but twice, he won it in 1871 which was miraculous as he had been suffering from a wasting disease between these two wins!   He was originally bought as a riding horse by a vet for his daughter, but he turned out to be too energetic, so he tried training him as a racehorse.    So I asked myself when the First National was run: it was back in 1845 and the winner was "The Duke", and ridden by Captain Becher:  The fence Becher's Brook is named after him sheltering in the brook after being unseated and he is stated to have said "Water tastes disgusting without the benefits of Whisky" no doubt the inspiration for a famous cigar commercial for a jockey sitting in a ditch lighting up a cigar.

I felt very sad yesterday that Synchronised was one of two fatalities in the race.  I absolutely hate racing when favourites are lost in the Grand National.  I realise Jonjo his trainer and owner JP McManus were attempting for a record to be broken, good for sportsmanship I suppose, but certainly good for the bookies as it was favourite to win the race with top weight too, so a lot of money was wagered or layed on this race and this horse.  I just felt sad that such a good horse is now a statistic, for the public's pleasure, me included.  He fell at the notorious 6th fence Becher's brook.

However sitting here thinking about this, if this horse had won the National, I'd be singing a totally different tune! 

Checking out the other names of the fences, Valentines Brook is named after a horse called Valentine that apparently jumped the fence hind feet first! The Chair was originally known as the Monument Jump: it is 5feet 2" high with a 6foot ditch and 3foot wide spruce fence.  But it was where a judge sat to measure who finished the course and he would only include horses who completed the course at that point when the winner had crossed the winning post.  Any horse who crossed after that time would be classed as distanced = non-finisher. This practice was soon abandoned in the 1850's and there is still a monument to where the judge sat on the course!

 The Chair is the only fence where a human fatality occurred: Joe Wynne back in 1862.   The Canal Turn is named after the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, and loose horses would often end up in the Canal at that point!