Grand National 2011

It’s still too early for official entries for the 2010 Grand National. However, it is expected that last years winner Mon Mome will be pointed at the race again. It’s a certainty that the handicapper will not be as generous with the weights he give Mon Mome in 2009.

Punters will have to wait until March 2010 for a true picture of the official runners to emerge. Several bookmakers are already giving ante post odds on a number of likely entrants. They include: State Of Play 25/1, Black Apalachi 25/1, Comply Or Die 25/1, Character Building 25/1, Big Fella Thanks 25/1, My Will 25/1, Irish Raptor 33/1, Mon Mome 33/1, Niche Market 33/1, Butler’s Cabin 33/1, Tricky Trickster.

Betfair is giving new customers a free £25 bet, to claim the free cash just follow these steps: Click here to open your account using the promotion code BET234. Once you’ve made a deposit to your account, place a bet up to £25. If your first bet loses, you’ll get your cash back (up to £25) within 24 hours. It’s a great deal for you as you can’t really lose, and if you do lose you get your money back! a ‘Win Win’ situation or rather ‘Lose Win’ situation.

BetFair also offers some of the best odds available online, usually they are 20% better than other bookmakers. BetFair also allows you to bet on losers! The idea is that you don’t just back winners but you also ‘Lay’ losers. For example, if you decide to lay a horse in a race you are, in theory, backing the horse to lose the race. Statistically this makes far more sense, in a six horse race there can only be one winner so the chances of picking a loser are far great than your chances of backing a winner.

Red Rum won his first Grand National in 1973 in his big-race debut, at eight years of age. He won this race by three quarters of a length and the following year he became the first horse since Reynoldstown (1936) to carry a 12 stone weight top victory and score back to back wins. He came second place in the Grand National in the following two years and then won an unprecedented treble at 12 years old – winning by an unheard of 25 lengths!

To put this in some kind of context – in five years Red Rum ran Grand Nationals, clearing 150 fences with never so much as a stumble. This is all pretty spectacular stuff but gets even more so when you realise that Red Rum was sired by a top-class miler (Quorum) out of a so-called ‘mad mare’ (Mared). Red Rum’s name came from the last three letters of the names of his dam and sire, and he was bought for a mere 400 guineas in yearling sales. He went on to fail to win any of his 14 races in the 1969 – 1970 season and was sold as a cast off in the Doncaster sales after suffering from pedalostitis bone disease. Not a good start to life you might say!

Fortunately for Red Rum he was bought by a former taxi-driver Donald ‘Ginger’ McCain; on behalf of Noel Le Mare; with whom he would develop into a living legend. McCain didn’t buy Red Rum in the Doncaster sales due to lack of funds but five years later he bought the gelding for 6,000 guineas. Another catastrophe struck for Red Rum two days later, when he was exercised for the first time on Southport’s sands – much to McCains horror his purchase showed clear signs of lameness! However a miracle occurred on getting him back on the beach – his lameness disappeared and Red Rum benefitted from daily walks in the brine, and never again exhibited lameness, apart from one time after his Grand National win.

Red Rum made magnificent progress under McCain and on the build-up for the 1973 Grand National, he finished third, second and fourth in races – on unfavourable soft ground. The omens were good for Aintree!

After winning the Grand National three times, it was predicted that he would win it a fourth, but on the eve of the race he was found to have a hairline fracture of a small foot bone and could therefore never be put on a racecourse again. Red Rum’s three victories made him a legend, and he travelled the length of the country making public appearances and was so famous that a Japanese-American businessman offered one million dollars to buy him to promote the opening of his restaurants. The offer was rejected, but Red Rum appeared on TV shows, was guest of honour at the switching-on of the Blackpool illuminations and was immortalised at Aintree by a bronze statue. To mark Red Rums 30th birthday a special meeting was staged in his honour at Aintree where he posed for photos and ate birthday cake! Five months later his heart began to fail so McCain and millions of fans had to bid a fond farewell to the most legendary horse ever known.