Hemmings confident Ballabriggs can improve again
February 2, 2012
Trevor Hemmings, one of National Hunt racing’s most successful owners, knows a thing or two about winning Grand Nationals having landed the ‘world’s greatest steeplechase’ in 2005 with Hedgehunter and then again last year with the brave Ballabriggs, and believes that the latter has a serious chance of becoming the first horse since Red Rum in 1974 to win the race in successive years, writes Elliot Slater.
Hemmings, owner of the Blackpool Tower amongst a host of business interests, had always dreamed about winning the John Smith’s Grand National and knows just how lucky he is to have already picked up the winners’ trophy not once, but twice. Although the statistics are stacked against Ballabriggs, Hemmings believes that the horse’s trainer Donald McCain, son of the late-great Ginger McCain, (trainer of three-time winner Red Rum and of Amberleigh House who won the race in 2004), will have the horse in equally good shape this time around to bid for glory under an even bigger weight than last year.
Arguing that his horse has relatively few miles on the clock and has been given a long break since his gruelling two-length defeat of Oscar Time last spring, Hemmings is optimistic that Jason Maguire’s mount will run another mighty race and expects him to have just the one outing to blow away the cobwebs before returning to Aintree in the glare of the international media and the millions of punters who bet on racing .
There was much criticism of the race last year after Ballabriggs was seen being given buckets of water and unsaddling immediately after crossing the winning line in the blazing sun, the impression being that he was dehydrated and in significant distress. It later transpired however that this had always been the plan (in view of the unusually warm day), and that the clerk of the course had unfortunately failed to communicate his intentions to the media. This year no such slip-ups are expected and Ballabriggs, currently a 16/1 favourite for the four-and-a-half-mile contest, will doubtless attract very significant market support and horse racing tips .
Hemmings, owner of the Blackpool Tower amongst a host of business interests, had always dreamed about winning the John Smith’s Grand National and knows just how lucky he is to have already picked up the winners’ trophy not once, but twice. Although the statistics are stacked against Ballabriggs, Hemmings believes that the horse’s trainer Donald McCain, son of the late-great Ginger McCain, (trainer of three-time winner Red Rum and of Amberleigh House who won the race in 2004), will have the horse in equally good shape this time around to bid for glory under an even bigger weight than last year.
Arguing that his horse has relatively few miles on the clock and has been given a long break since his gruelling two-length defeat of Oscar Time last spring, Hemmings is optimistic that Jason Maguire’s mount will run another mighty race and expects him to have just the one outing to blow away the cobwebs before returning to Aintree in the glare of the international media and the millions of punters who bet on racing .
There was much criticism of the race last year after Ballabriggs was seen being given buckets of water and unsaddling immediately after crossing the winning line in the blazing sun, the impression being that he was dehydrated and in significant distress. It later transpired however that this had always been the plan (in view of the unusually warm day), and that the clerk of the course had unfortunately failed to communicate his intentions to the media. This year no such slip-ups are expected and Ballabriggs, currently a 16/1 favourite for the four-and-a-half-mile contest, will doubtless attract very significant market support and horse racing tips .
Posted by Robert James.