Who was Sir Henry Cecil?

The late Sir Henry Cecil, who died of cancer on June 11, 2013, at the age of 70, is best known as the trainer of Frankel, the highest rated horse in the history of Timeform and World Thoughbred Rankings, who retired, unbeaten in 14 races, in October, 2012. However, while Cecil, who was kinghted for services to horse racing in 2011, may have described Frankel as ‘the best horse I’ve ever seen’, he was arguably one of the greatest trainers in history.

Unfortunately his career was overshadowed by controversy but, in his heyday, between the late Seventies and early Nineties, Cecil was Champion Trainer ten times. Overall, he saddled 25 British Classic winners and was particularly adept with fillies, winning the Oaks eight times, including with Fillies’ Triple Crown heroine Oh So Sharp in 1985, and the 1,000 Guineas six times. He also won the Derby four times, including with British Horse of the Year, Reference Point, in 1987, the St. Leger four times and the 2,000 Guineas three times. Until June, 2018, when Poet’s Word, trained by Sir Michael Stoute, won the St. James’s Palace Stakes, Cecil also held the record for the most winners at Royal Ascot, having saddled 75 in his long, illustrious career.

What was unusual about 1844 Derby winner Running Rein?

The Derby Stakes was inaugurated in 1780 and, while the distance was extended from a mile to a mile-and-a-half in 1784, the race was restricted to three-year-old colts and fillies from its inception. The horse that passed the post first in the 1844 renewal of the Derby, appeared, at first glance, to be the three-year-old Running Rein, but a subsequent investigation revealed that the ‘winner’ was not, in fact, Running Rein, nor any other three-year-old.

In what the Solicitor-General later described as ‘a gross and scandalous fraud’, the original owner of Running Rein, one Abraham Levi, a.k.a. Goodman, had substituted a four-year-old, by the name of Maccabeus, to run in the Derby in place of the three-year-old. Obviously, a four-year-old was ineligible to run in the Derby, so the horse purporting to be Running Rein was disqualified and the race awarded to the runner-up, Orlando. Apparently, Maccabeus had been entered to run in races under his own name before he was purchased by Levi so, to allow him to be trained, as ‘Running Rein’, for the Derby Levi recruited an Irish horse – perhaps unsurprisingly, a five-year-old – to complete the subterfuge by masquerading as the ‘real’ Maccabeus.

Will Santini run in the 2021 Cheltenham Gold Cup?

A lightly-raced eight-year-old, trained by Nicky Henderson, Santini has the unenviable record of having run at the Cheltenham Festival three years running and been beaten, albeit narrowly, on all three occasions. However, to his credit, all three defeats have come in Grade One contests; in 2019, Santini finished third, beaten four-and-a-half lengths, in the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle, in 2019, he finished second, beaten half-a-length, in the RSA Insurance Novices’ Chase and, in 2020, finished second, beaten a neck, in the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

Although not quite able to get on terms with defending champion Al Boum Photo in the final half-a-furlong or so of the 2020 Cheltenham Gold Cup, it is worth remembering that Santini has only made six starts over regulation fences, so remains open to significant improvement as a steeplechaser. Obviously, a case can be made for any of the first three and, possibly, the first four or five, home in the 2020 Cheltenham Gold Cup, not to mention RSA Insurance Novices’ Chase winner, Champ, but the 7/1 currently available ante post about Santini for the 2021 Cheltenham Gold Cup seems fair enough. Cut in the ground appears to be a pre-requisite for the Milan gelding but, granted his favoured underfoot conditions, he appears likely to attempt to make amends for his agonising defeat. In the 2020 renewal, he closed steadily on the eventual winner all the way from the final fence to the winning post and, within ten or twenty yards, was in front.

Should I back Easysland to win the 2021 Grand National?

If you put your faith in what statistics say, the simple answer is no, you shouldn’t. No seven-year-old has won the Grand National since World War II so, notwithstanding the fact that French-bred horses, for reasons of nature and nurture, typically mature faster than their British or Irish counterparts, Easysland will need to buck a major trend if he is to win the 2021 Grand National.

That said, Easysland has run up a sequence of seven consecutive wins in cross-country steeplechases, including the Glenfarclas Cross Country Handicap Chase and the Glenfarclas Chase at Cheltenham, and makes no little appeal, especially at the 25/1 generally available ante post, in the 2021 Grand National. Indeed, he was snapped up by leading owner John Patrick ‘J.P.’ McManus in February, 2020, and rewarded the investment with an impressive, 17-length victory over dual Grand National winner Tiger Roll in the Glenfarclas Chase at the Cheltenham Festival the following month. Tiger Roll, in turn, finished 18 lengths ahead of the third horse home, Out Sam, which suggests the form is reliable enough.

According to winning trainer David Cotton, the slow going at Cheltenham was in his favour, so Easysland may need underfoot conditions to come up unseasonably soft at Aintree to be seen to best effect. Of course, he also has no experience over the Grand National fences but, as a well-balanced horse who has been schooled over a variety of idiosyncratic obstacles, victory in the celebrated steeplechase would not be a complete surprise.

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