The turf
National types
Robin Oakley
Publication of the weights for this year's Grand National just after the death of the 1978 winner, Lucius, prompted the thought: is there such a thing as a 'National type'? Bob Davies, who had never even sat on the horse before they met in the parade ring, piloted Lucius to victory after gaining a chance ride when his regular partner, 'Gypsy Dave' Goulding, was injured. He believes that the best prospects for the four-furlong National are two-and-a-half- mile chasers who can just about do three miles. He instances not only Lucius but Specify and Gay Trip as past winners who came into that category. 'It depends on the going, but normally in a dryish spring the ground is reasonable at Aintree and you need that bit of speed.'
It is only when it is heavy at Aintree, he contends, that chances will improve for the kind of dour stayer who will slog round a soggy Chepstow to take the Welsh Nation- al. And while most might think of the great Red Rum as an extreme stayer, Bob Davies, nowadays clerk of the course at Ludlow and Bangor, points out that he competed in five-furlong sprints as a two- year-old.
Those who share the Davies theory argue that you can hunt round the first circuit with a two-and-a-half miler and then pick off the stayers for speed at the end. An ex-champion jockey like Bob Davies has to be heeded. A quiet horseman with a knack of positioning a horse perfectly in a race, he was second in the National the year after his victory on Lucius, riding Zon- galero. I thought him one of the best tacti- cians of our times. But another former champion Josh Gifford, who came a heroic second on Honey End to Foinavon after losing 200 yards to the winner in the 23rd fence fiasco in 1967, takes a .different view.
He doesn't think there is a National type. 'They come in all shapes and sizes and have been winning over all sorts of trips. What you need above all is a horse with the right temperament, who jumps the right way and a bloody lot of luck. That's what makes it such a spectacle'. Aldaniti, whom he trained to win in 1981, was a stayer and nothing else, he says.
This year he has charge of the French horse As des Carres, who's going back to France for his next chase before competing in the National but whom he reckons well handicapped. And there is also the talented but tricky Topsham Bay. He's been hunter- chasing and will either run in the National or in the Foxhunters.
So what then of the first lady of Aintree, Jenny Pitman, successful in 1983 with Cor- biere, last year with Royal Athlete and win- ner too of the void 1993 race with Esha Ness? She points out that Fred Winter used to favour two-and-a-half mile horses for the National and she has the greatest respect for him. But those were not the types she has won with, especially in the old days when the fences were stiffer still. `Corbiere was never the fastest, but he was a brilliant jumper. He flew over them and gained a length or two at every fence.
'Royal Athlete jumped well too last year, but he's got a bit of class. What you need above all is a good jumper and a horse that is well-balanced. There are a lot of fences to jump at Aintree (26 of them) and a horse needs to be confident. It's guts. I watched a television programme about the training of athletes the other day and the coach said that a number of runners came to him with similar abilities but the ones who became champions were the ones with strong characters. Champions are the ones who'll grind it down.'
A number of horses get beaten after the last on that long run-in in the Grand National, she pointed out. 'There's not a lot to encourage them at that point.' In Which case, I suggested, Superior Finish, one of her four entries this year, might be the one to be on, after finishing like a train Up the hill at Sandown last time out to overhaul Sibton Abbey and Greenhil Tare Away. She didn't demur. 'They went a hell of a clip in that race and he'll keep going.'
Mrs Pitman's Smith's Band might be a better prospect for 1997 than this year and Royal Athlete is 13 now, but her other National entry, Lusty Light, which fell at the first last year, still strikes me as a lively Prospect too.
Robin Oakley is political editor of the BBC.
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