Today’s best bets, by Chris Cook
So, farewell then, Red Marauder. At the age of 26, the Grand National winner of 2001 has left us, having reached an excellent age for a thoroughbred racehorse.
After heavy rain, his National took more than 11 minutes to run and was the subject of a famously critical piece in the Racing Post a couple of days later. It was certainly an arduous race but the field would not have been reduced quite so dramatically except for some rotten luck on the way, like the loose Paddy’s Return deciding to charge along the take-off side of the Canal Turn.
Anyway, all the horses came back in one piece and Red Marauder achieved much more in those 11 minutes than at any other point in his career. He was extraordinarily hardy and resilient to pick his way through that race and keep on chugging as the others fell away. The image of him and Richard Guest leaning on each other in triumphant exhaustion will always stay with me.
Another reason for remembering Red Marauder is that he is the National winner with the least promising prep-run in Aintree’s long history. “Last when fell first” was how he ran at Haydock two months earlier, proving what a mistake it is to look for recent form.
Anyway, if you are so minded, here is the full replay of Red Marauder’s muddy National. Personally, I think Moral Support was robbed.
Conditions will be rather better at Taunton today, which should help Moss On The Mill (1.45) follow up his Ludlow success of a fortnight ago. That was a first success over fences for the eight-year-old, who had been faring reasonably well over hurdles. A back problem had been holding him back but Tom George believes it has now been fixed.
A 6lb rise for that should leave him with a bit of scope to win again, since he is barely above the mark he had over hurdles. Despite his experience, he qualifies for this novice handicap and I didn’t find the opposition especially tempting. He’s 13-2, which seems big.
At Chelmsford tonight, Oxford Blu (4.55) is the nap at a predictably short 6-4. This is a Sir Mark Prescott juvenile who improved, surprise, for a step up in distance to score last time. A visor may also have helped. This is a slightly different surface but I don’t think that or an extra 6lb will stop him.
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