GRAND NATIONAL AT AINTREE

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27010, 9 April 1953, Page 4

GRAND NATIONAL AT AINTREE

IRISH JUBILATION AT EARLY MIST’S WIN GELDING FROM RANK STABLES (From Our Own Correspondent.) t LONDON, March 30. Last Saturday night could have been St. Patrick’s Day all over again at Aintree, a dingy suburb of Liverpool. On every side could be heard the Irish brogue—genuine and assumed—of the “patriots” who had had a “foin day ’ standing out in the open in the cold March showers. The reason for all the Irish jubilation was the successes of the pride of Dublin, Early Mist, an eight-year-old chestnut gelding which had just won the world’s toughest horse race, the Grand National Steeplechase. Early Mist won by 20 lengths. His success was worth £9255 in prize money and about £30,000 in bets for his Irish owner, and many unknown thousands of pounds for his countless supporters.

Englishmen pointed out that Early Mist was bred in England, but the fact that a young Irish jockey, B. Marshall, had ridden him, and an Irish trainer, V. O’Brien, had trained him, made it a triumphant day for the Irish. The Irish win was not without its touch of irony. For 25 years. Mr J. V. Rank, the English flour-milling millionaire, had spent nearly £lOO,OOO trying to win the Grand National and the Derby—the big double of the horse-racing world. Mr Rank died about 16 months ago, and among his many horses that were sold by auction was Early Mist. A Dublin. "businessman, Mr J. Griffin, bought the chestnut for £5700 and, in his second attempt to win the steeplechase, achieved the success that had eluded Mr Rank for so long. Big Day of the Year National Day is Aintree’s big day of the year. From all over Britain, in cars, buses and special trains, the crowds flock to the big race. Overhead, a small aeroplane flies throughout the afternoon, as a police inspector gives radio instructions to colleagues on the ground to direct the streams of traffic converging on the course.

There is none of the picnic-cum-fun-fair atmosphere of Derby Bay about the Grand National. The race is usually run in rain or in misty conditions under an overcast sky, but the enthusiasts who pack the course are prepared to endure the uncomfortable conditions for two things —to win money, and to see the world’s best steeplechasers compete in the toughest jumping race in the sporting calendar.

Facilities for the public are on a par with this hardy pioneering spirit. Although there is a large stand near the finishing post with a trim County enclosure, where the bowler-hatted men and fashionably-dressed woman lean on their shooting-sticks, most steeplechase enthusiasts prefer to stand on the rough cinder perimeter track on the mud to watch their favourites take the big jumps. Clusters of bookmakers, with their “Honest Joe” and “Same old face, same old place” tags, huddle under their umbrellas near the popular vantage points. There is a small marquee for the 2s totalisator, but betting is comparatively slow. The smaller course in front of the main stand is not visible to spectators in the popular enclosures at the top of the long National course, and the damp crowd, hearing only the announcements of the dividends of the winning horses in the supporting races on the programme, waits impatiently for the National to begin. Gruelling Test

According to the racebook, the Grand National is over a distance of "about four miles and 856 yards.” Although the course is flat with no steep hills or rises for the horses to climb, the aggregation of 30 jumps—ranging from 4ft 6in to sft in height, and with ditches from five feet to 12ft 6in wide—gives the mounts a gruelling jumping test. The course is triangular, with a run nearly a mile long from the starting post to the sixth fence, the famous Becher’s Brook. This jump combines the obstacles of a five-foot brush fence, and a sixfoot brook with a drop on the far side, to make it the most feared of all jumps in the race. From Becher’s, the horses turn sharply left to the 'Canal turn, where they run down the long northern straight to pass in front of the stands. Runners make two circuits of the course, with 16 jumps on the first round and 13 jumps on the second.

Anticipating the renowned “cavalry charge” for the first fence, a large crowd of spectators gathered at the first jump last Saturday. Usually up to a dozen horses in the field fall at this jump (in 1952 a record number of 18 fell), but on Saturday only two came to grief. By the time the field of 31 horses had reached Becher’s, however, it was down to 20-odd, and from then on the straggling train of horses grew fewer as the jumps took their toll. The winner, in the words of his jockey, “jumped like a cat” throughout, and although the top-weighted horse, Mount Tremblant, followed him closely all the way round, he could not match, the chestnut’s sure jumping and powerful stride. By the time Early Mist had cleared the thirtieth, and final jump, the race was all over and the Irish singers had started their songs of triumph. March 17 and March 28 were certainly both "great days” in 1953.