Can Burrows Saint win the 2021 Grand National?

Of course, the 2020 Grand National was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic but, three weeks before the event was due to take place, Burrows Saint was second-favourite, behind only Tiger Roll, and had been well touted as one of the more likely winners. However, Burrows Saint is still a young horse and, granted that the last seven-year-old to win the Grand National was Bogskar in 1940, the enforced delay in his Aintree challenge may not be altogether a bad thing.

Owned by Susannah Ricci and trained, in County Carlow, Ireland, by Willie Mullins, Burrows Saint first emerged as a bona fide Grand National contender when justifying favouritism in the Irish Grand National, over 3 miles 5 furlongs, at Fairyhouse in April, 2019. He subsequently ran creditably in defeat, in two Grade One events, the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris at Auteil and the Drinmore Novice Chase at Fairyhouse, before reverting to hurdles in the Bet With Tote At Punchestown Hurdle on New Year’s Eve.

On the latter occasion, despite being disadvantaged by the race conditions, Burrows Saint was enterprising ridden by Rachael Blackmore and, having made all the running, only had to be pushed out on the run-in to win, easily, by three-and-a-quarter lengths. Bookmaker Paddy Power responded by cutting his odds for the Grand National from 20/1 to 14/1 so, while the 2021 Grand National is obviously some way off, the 25/1 available ante post, at the time of writing, could yet represent some value.

Can Al Boum Photo win the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2021?

In March, 2019, Al Boum Photo had the distinction of becoming the first Cheltenham Gold Cup winner for County Carlow trainer Willie Mullins, who had previously saddled the runner-up in the ‘Blue Riband’ event on no fewer than six times. Only the third-least fancied of four Mullins-trained runners, at 12/1, on that occasion, Al Boum Photo stayed on strongly under Paul Townend to win by two-and-a-half lengths. Al Boum Photo returned to Cheltenham, as defending champion, in 2020 and, although sent off clear favourite, at 100/30, had to dig deep to fend off Santini and Lostintranslation by a neck and one-and-a-quarter lengths.

Obviously, whether or not Al Boum Photo can join the likes of Golden Miller, Arkle and Best Mate by winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup three years running depends, in large part, on his well-being by the time March 19, 2021, rolls around. However, provided he is fit and well, as a lightly-raced nine-year-old, he must have every chance of defending his title for a second time. Of course, aside from Santini and Lostintranslation, Al Boum Photo could face several other progressive, young steeplechasers, including Champ and Minella Indo, who finished first and second in the RSA Insurance Novices’ Chase at the 2020 Cheltenham Festival, and the returning Topofthegame, winner of the same race in 2019. Whether the 6/1 currently on offer ante post represents value is debatable, but, as a dual Cheltenham Gold Cup winner already, Al Boum Photo needs to be taken very seriously indeed.

Who is Derek Thompson?

Derek Thompson, or ‘Tommo’, as he likes to call himself, is a veteran television and radio presenter, commentator and after dinner speaker. Originally from Middlesbrough in North East England, Thompson, who turns 70 in July, 2020, began broadcasting on local radio as a teenager, before joining BBC Radio Sport in 1972 and ITV Sport in 1981. Bizarrely, two years later, in February, 1983, Thompson was involved, along with ITV colleague John Oaksey and Sun journalist Peter Campling, in negotations for the release of the 1981 Derby winner, Shergar, who had been kidnapped from the Ballymany Stud in Co. Kildare.

In 1985, Thompson joined Channel 4 Racing, which had begun broadcasting horse racing coverage in Britain the previous March. He continued to to ply his trade as a presenter and commentator until January, 2013, when he was dropped from the roster, along with the late John McCririck, when IMG Sports Media took over the production of Channel 4 Racing. Later that year, Thompson reported on the Cheltenham Festival for BBC Radio Five Live. Nowadays, he works as a studio presenterer on Sky Sports Racing, formerly At The Races, and makes regular appearances on Talksport radio. On one, especially cringeworthy, occasion, Thompson cut to At The Races colleague Robert Cooper, saying ‘Oh, you’ve been joined by a beautiful lady’, only for a baffled Cooper to reply, ‘It’s a man actually, Derek’.

In which season did Tony McCoy ride most winners?

Undoubtedly the greatest National Hunt jockey in history, Sir Anthony McCoy, a.k.a. Tony McCoy, requires little introduction. Born in County Antrim, Northern Ireland in 1974, McCoy was Champion Conditional Jockey in 1995/96 and, thereafter, Champion Jockey every year for two decades until his retirement in April, 2015. All told, McCoy rode a record 4,348 winners over obstacles, an achievement made all the more remarkable by the fact that he stands 5’10” tall and, throughout his career, required a punishing regime to maintain his weight at around 10st 3lb. In 2016, McCoy was knighted for services to horse racing, making him just the second jockey in history, after Sir Gordon Richards in 1953, to be awarded a knighthood.

Indeed, in 2001/02, en route to his seventh Jump Jockeys’ Championship, McCoy rode 289 winners, thereby breaking the British record for the most winners in a single season, 269, set by Sir Gordon Richards in 1947. In August 2002, McCoy also succeeded Richard Dunwoody as the most prolific jockey in British National Hunt history, when Mighty Montefalco, trained by Jonjo O’Neill, landed odds of 8/13 at Uttoxeter to bring up winner number 1,700. After winning the Jump Jockeys’ Championship again in 2002/03, with 258 winners McCoy set his sights on riding 300 winners in 2003/04; he suffered a major setback when breaking his arm in a fall at Worcester in June, with just 36 winners on the board, but still managed 209 winners in the season as a whole.

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