Favourite Horses 1990-2019
The 90s
1. LORD GYLLENE - (above) for putting up the most impressive performance over the National fences that I have ever seen, for making most of the running, for winning the race on a Monday and for generally being wonderful.....if only he had been fit enough to have had another go.
2. MR FRISK - for being the first horse I backed to win the race
3. SEAGRAM - for being the second
4. KILLESHIN - for being the only horse for whom the National distance was a little on the sharp side.
5. MIINNEHOMA - for winning a National after a year of worrying that there would not be one, for being the first National winner I saw live on the course, for being part of a treble that gave me my most profitable raceday ever and for being the ever lovely and ever patient Bridgets favourite National winner
6. PARTY POLITICS - for treating the National fences like they were hurdles
7. ESHA NESS - for winning the race that wasn`t.
8. QUIRINUS - for making the long trip from Slovakia not just once (when it didn`t count) but twice and for not seeming to care that he was almost two fences behind the rest of the field both times.
9. MOORCROFT BOY - for coming back from the dead to win a Scottish Grand National and for being a beacon for all rehabilitated racehorses everywhere.
10. ST MELLION FAIRWAY - for being big, for being slow and for being one of those sneaky ousiders you tip each way for your work colleagues who then think that you are extremely clever
The 00s
The Last Fling (green and yellow quarters taking the lead at the first fence in 2002
1. HEDGEHUNTER - for winning magnificently in 2005 and for nearly winning in 2004 and deserving to win in 2006. For being the best National horse of the decade and for nearly winning a Gold Cup in 2006.
2. AMBERLEIGH HOUSE - for jumping an incredible 245 National fences - 5 Nationals, 5 Bechers & a Topham & for giving Ginger McCain his second National winner, twenty seven years after Red Rum.
3. BEHRAJAN - for being a big fella of the "they don`t make`em like that any more" variety - just short of top class over both fences and hurdles. Didn`t see the trip home on his one visit in 2003 but would have done better in 2004 if fate and the second last at Warwick hadn`t intervened.
4. THE LAST FLING - for being one of my favourites from the early part of the decade. Loved it round Haydock and blazed the trail in exciting fashion in 2002 - he deserved better.
5. MERRY PEOPLE - for plodding around in his own time miles ahead of anything else in 2001 after he had unseated early on
6. SILVER BIRCH - for providing his young trainer with only his second ever success under rules, for coming back from oblivion (he won a Becher Chase and was ante-post favourite for the 2005 National before injury intervened). He also ran a blinder in 2009 before falling at second Bechers.
7. TRINITRO - for coming to Aintree from Norway. He only got as far as the first fence but it was a sporting gesture. The last Norwegian steeplechaser.
8. BEAU - for giving us the sight of a hapless Carl Llewellyn running after his mount after being unseated in 2001.
9. ARTEEA - for being a hopeless 200-1 shot who, for a few strides before two out in 2009 did not look quite so hopeless and had me believing for about two seconds that the impossible was possible.
10. BALLYCASSIDY- for surviving the most bone-crunching fall when leading at second Valentines in 2006. Nine times out of ten a fall like this would have been fatal but he not only lived to fight another day but lined up in his third National a year later
The 10s
1. MANY CLOUDS - for bravely holding on to win when clearly exhausted despite a rousing late challenge by Saint Are in 2015, for being one of the most talented National winners in many years (he was Gold Cup class). Despite his disappointing performance when defending his crown in 2016 I am certain he would have run very well in 2017 but as we all know he sadly met his end in the bravest of ways after battling up the Cheltenham hill with the up and and coming Thistlecrack in the Cotswold Chase. I am not sentimental, I have been watching this wonderful sport for too many years but even I sobbed in my wifes arms that night.
2. TIGER ROLL - for becoming the first since Red Rum to win back to back Nationals - come on who really thought we would see a dual National winner again ? Covid ruined his chances of a hat-trick in 2020 and I am not certain he would have won in 2021 but seeing him tailed off in the Betway Bowl instead of taking his chance in the National was one of the saddest things I have ever seen on a racecourse.
3. SAINT ARE - for being a true Aintree specialist, five Nationals (would have been six but he was eliminated in 2014) and a few Becher Chases thrown in for good measure. Good enough to win over the Mildmay fences too - a fantastic servant to connections
4. BIG FELLA THANKS - for being another of those wonderful brave Aintree specialists, the only horse to my knowledge to have run in the Becher Chase and the three races over the National fences at the Grand National meeting - only failed to finish once and even then he led the field for a time riderless. He was still running over the fences at the age of fiteen.
5. NEPTUNE COLLONGES - firstly for being a top class winner, secondly for being a lovely grey and the first for fifty one years to win the National and perhaps most importanty for holding the record for being the National winner in front for the least time - literally on the line. Oh well - thats where it counts.
6. VIEUX LION ROUGE - for being another Aintree specialist, this dual Becher Chase winner never saw out the National trip but up until the twentieth fence in 2021 he had a hundred percent completion record. He didn't manage to complete the course either on his last Aintree appearance in the Becher Chase later that year but he got far enough to beat Amberleigh Houses record for the most Aintree fences jumped successfully.
7. LONG RUN - for being a rare Gold Cup/King George VI winner to run in the National albeit in the twilight of his career and I was as surprised as many to see this one line up in 2014. He was leading too when he hit Valentines first time and that was it
8. RATHVINDEN - for being my red hot certainty in 2019. I was convinced this one only had to turn up to win - never have I been so confident. He ran well but he didn't
9. PLEASANT COMPANY - for being one of my favourites of the decade. In 2018 he made up an incredible amount of gound on the run in having been left for dead by Tiger Roll at the last - he almost snatched it from him on the line.
10. ANY HORSES RUNNING IN THE COLOURS OF THE RUCKER FAMILY - for having the most incredible record of placed runs STATE OF PLAY (4th-2009, 3rd-2010, 4th-2011), CAPPA BLEU (4th-2012, 2nd-2013) and ALVARADO (4th-2014, 4th-2015). Amazingly none of these wonderful animals ever looked like they had a chance of winning and all made their challenges late on but what a record.