When Leighton Aspell rode in the Grand National for the first time in 2003, he was on a 40-1 outsider called Supreme Glory. He finished second. “I was thrilled to bits with that,” he said this week. “I thought that was going to be my little piece of Grand National history.” He was right. It was his little piece of National history; and since then, Aspell has acquired a big piece of National history to go with it.
Only a handful of jump jockeys enjoy even a single victory in the most famous horse race in the world, as Aspell did on Pineau De Re in 2014. Fewer still ride a second winner, as Aspell did 12 months ago on Many Clouds. But in a storied history that extends to almost 200 years, no jockey has won three Nationals in a row.
If Aspell could win again aboard the favourite, Many Clouds, on Saturday, his achievement would be not merely extraordinary but unique.
If so, his name would be an appropriate addition to the list of legends in this, the “People’s race”. The National bestows its favours sparingly, and left champion jockeys such as Peter Scudamore and John Francome waiting for ever. It prefers to promote its heroes from the ranks and Aspell, a veteran of 23 seasons, is the latest rider chosen to make the step up.
“The last two years have been fantastic,” he said. “There’s amazing stories behind lots of previous National winners and that’s part of the romance. It’s changed a lot but there’s still that element of luck in the race that attracts people.
“Growing up in Ireland, everybody had a bet on the National. All my classmates were having a bet in the National and on the school bus on Monday you’re talking about what you backed, how far it got, why you picked it and what a bad ride the jockey gave it, things like that. Riding in it was always what I wanted to do.
“I can remember all of my Nationals. Supreme Glory was a bit of a blur but as you get older, and I’m nearly 40 now, the pace of races is slower because you’re more experienced and relaxed and you can take in what’s around you, understand the speed and the dangers and try to work out the race in your head as it progresses.”
Aspell sounds a little like a fighter pilot when he talks about the National. The Grand National is the most intense 10 minutes of the year in any sport, a maelstrom of chance and possibilities from which a single horse and rider will emerge to claim victory. From the off, Aspell will be processing countless streams of information, arriving from every direction.
“I’ve got to put it all to the back of my mind that he’s favourite and I might be winning for the third time,” he says. “Before the race you just get your game face on and give it the respect it deserves. It’s a completely different atmosphere in the weighing room. There’s 40 jockeys in there, and it’s on everyone’s mind, every moment. Cheltenham is high pressure, but [in] the National, the chances of things going wrong are much higher.
“By the time of the race you have a picture of all the colours, and you know the horses that are the dangers. As you go around, you’ll think: that’s gone, that’s gone, that’s going well, that’s not jumping at all well so I’ll keep away from that.
“As the race progresses, you then adjust to the pace of it, you look at the ones that are still going and there’s also the ones you dismissed beforehand on their form so you think, that’s out in front but it’s not going to be there much longer.
“It’s milliseconds all the time that it’s going through your mind, and then the fences are coming up all the time as well. It’s multitasking in a huge way.
“Where I’m so lucky is that I promise you, you could ride Many Clouds with your eyes closed. I don’t want to jinx him so he’ll fall at the first but if he can see the fence, he can work it out, he doesn’t need me to tell him how to jump. That means I can focus on being in the right place at the right time, when to use energy and when to conserve it.”
Aspell talks about the National and his life as a jump jockey with such enthusiasm that it is difficult to believe he announced his retirement in July 2007. “I wasn’t enjoying it as much as I should,” he says. “The mileage was a real drag and there were other parts of the sport I could work at, but in the end I realised that I couldn’t replace the race‑riding part of it. I should have just taken a couple of months off.”
He was away from race-riding for 18 months but his decision to return coincided with a serious injury for his fellow jockey Dominic Elsworth, who had taken over Aspell’s role at Oliver Sherwood’s stable.
“I just wanted to get enough rides to make a living and support my family,” Aspell says. “I promise you I’d have been happy just making a living at it but then Oliver had an injection of new owners and Many Clouds came along.”
Aspell will never be the champion jockey, or the top rider at the Cheltenham Festival in March. Whatever happens on Saturday, he will have slipped back into relative sporting obscurity by the middle of next week with no complaints.
“All the media can be tiring and a bit repetitive sometimes but I’m glad it’s me talking about it and not somebody else,” he says. “If I was on a 50-1 shot and watching someone else get all the attention I’m getting now, I’d be jealous.
“It’s not like being a footballer where you’re in the spotlight every weekend. I’d be a celebrity around these parts [in West Sussex] and at the kids’ school and the pony club and things like that, but other than that, people wouldn’t know me from Adam, really. That’s how I like it.”
