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2005 Grand National
The 2005 Grand National (officially known as the John Smith's Grand National for sponsorship reasons) was the 158th official annual running of the Grand National steeplechase which took place at Aintree Racecourse near Liverpool, England, on 9 April 2005 and attracted the maximum permitted field of 40 competitors for total prize money of £700,000 including £406,000 to the winner. The nine-year-old 7/1 favourite Hedgehunter, ridden by Ruby Walsh and trained by Willie Mullins, won the race by 14 lengths, in a time of 9 minutes 21 seconds. 40/1 shot Royal Auclair finished second, from 66/1-rated Simply Gifted in third. The start of the race was moved back 25 minutes to avoid clashing with the wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles. Over half of the field completed the course and all the horses returned safely, although Frenchman's Creek was retired afterward. There was much media interest in Carrie Ford, the rider of Forest Gunner, who was considered the first g ...
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Grand National
The Grand National is a National Hunt horse race held annually at Aintree Racecourse in Aintree, Merseyside, England. First run in 1839, it is a handicap steeplechase over an official distance of about , with horses jumping 30 fences over two laps.'' British Racing and Racecourses'' () by Marion Rose Halpenny – Page 167 It is the most valuable jump race in Europe, with a prize fund of £1 million in 2017. An event that is prominent in British culture, the race is popular amongst many people who do not normally watch or bet on horse racing at other times of the year. The course over which the race is run features much larger fences than those found on conventional National Hunt tracks. Many of these fences, particularly Becher's Brook, The Chair and the Canal Turn, have become famous in their own right and, combined with the distance of the event, create what has been ...
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Starting Price
In horse racing and greyhound racing, the starting price (SP) is the odds prevailing on a particular entry in the on-course fixed-odds betting market at the time a race begins. The method by which SPs are set for each runner varies in different countries but is generally by consensus of an appointed panel on the basis of their observations of the fluctuation in prices at the racetrack. For British horseraces governed by the Starting Price Regulatory Commission (SPRC), the starting price is determined as follows: The selection of the sample is performed so that the sample size is an even number "wherever practically possible", since otherwise it would not be possible to divide the list into two equal halves. Only bookmakers that generate prices independently are considered, and those within the same ownership group are treated as a single sample. This method is very similar to the calculation of the median of the sampled prices, and the result is referred to as the median by ...
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Martin Pipe
Martin Charles Pipe (born 29 May 1945), is an English former racehorse trainer credited with professionalising the British racehorse training industry, and as of 2021 the most successful trainer in British jump racing. The son of a West Country bookmaker, Pipe was an amateur jockey before turning his attention to training in 1974 at Nicholashayne, Somerset, near Wellington, England, at Pond House stables. Pipe is broadly credited with professionalising National Hunt racing. He made multiple simple but effective changes to what had been then the traditional methods of training racehorses, specifically those in jump racing. His training innovations included using interval training, using daily blood tests to assess fitness, and keeping horses lean during the racing season, all intended to ensure his horses were at peak fitness for races. His methods came into broad use during the period he was training. Pipe was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) ...
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Timmy Murphy
Timothy James Murphy (born 20 August 1974 in County Kildare, Republic of Ireland, Ireland), known as Timmy Murphy, is a retired Irish jockey who competed mostly in National Hunt racing, National Hunt racing. A multiple Grade 1-winning rider, he is best known for his victory on Comply or Die in the 2008 Grand National. He overcame problems with alcohol, which had led to a prison sentence after a drunken incident on a plane in 2002, to resume a successful career and win the 2005 jump jockey of the year Lester Award. He won the Irish Grand National on Davids Lad in 2001, and the Scottish Grand National on Merigo in 2010 and 2012. He had eight winners at the Cheltenham Festival, the first in 1997 and the last in 2009. He recorded his 1000th win in Britain in 2010. Following an injury in a fall in 2010 he was unable to regain his licence to ride over jumps and switched codes, riding on Flat racing, the flat from 2015 until 2018, when he retired from race riding. Background Murphy wa ...
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Andrew Thornton
Andrew Thornton is a retired National Hunt jockey. Early life He was born on 28 October 1972 in Cleveland, Yorkshire and schooled at Barnard Castle School in County Durham. Riding career He rode mainly for Caroline Bailey and Seamus Mullins, he was stable jockey for Robert Alner for many years as well as riding for plenty of other trainers over the years. Thornton was one of the very few National Hunt jockeys who wore contact lenses while riding and it is for this reason that he acquired the nicknames "Lensio" and "Blindman". Thornton rode his 1000th winner on Kentford Myth at Wincanton on 26 December 2016. Despite having to endure many setbacks and injuries throughout his career, by 2012 Thornton was widely regarded as one of the best jumps jockeys around. He was also very highly respected among his weighing room colleagues. Because Thornton was taller than the average jump jockey, he was forced to ride very low in the stirrups. It was not always attractive to look at but it r ...
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Ginger McCain
Donald "Ginger" McCain (21 September 1930 – 19 September 2011) was an English horse trainer who led the champion steeplechaser Red Rum to three Grand National victories in the 1970s. A former national serviceman in the Royal Air Force as a motorcycle dispatch rider, he was also a member of the RAF scrambling team. Horseracing McCain applied for a training permit in 1953 and began training horses in 1962, using small stables behind the showroom of his used-car store in his hometown of Southport. He bought a horse for 6,000 guineas that turned out to be suffering from a debilitating bone disease. The horse was Red Rum. McCain trained the winner of the Grand National steeplechase four times, three times in the 1970s with Red Rum and a fourth time in 2004 with Amberleigh House. His first and fourth victories were over 30 years apart. The 1973 Grand National was a duel of nine minutes two seconds between Red Rum and Crisp, with L'Escargot (a previous double Cheltenham Go ...
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Graham Lee (jockey)
Graham Lee (born 16 December 1975 in Galway, Ireland) is an Irish jockey. Based in England, he won the 2004 Grand National on Amberleigh House. In 2012 he switched to riding on the flat and won the Ascot Gold Cup on Trip To Paris in 2015. National Hunt career Lee joined the team of trainer Howard Johnson permanently in 2002, after leaving the stables of Malcolm Jefferson and was largely responsible for the schooling and on-track development of horses owned by Graham Wylie including Inglis Drever, No Refuge and Arcalis. Lee held freelance status, and rode for many other trainers during these years, most notably Ginger McCain.Racing: Ginger’s revival brings down the house
independent.co.uk, 4 April 2004, accessed 3 April 2010.
In an a ...
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Nigel Twiston-Davies
Nigel Twiston-Davies (born 16 May 1957, Crickhowell) is a British racehorse trainer specialising in National Hunt racing. He is based at stables at Naunton, Gloucestershire. He began training in 1981 and sent out his first winner, Last of the Foxes, at Hereford Racecourse in 1982. He has trained over 1000 winners under National Hunt rules including two winners of the Grand National with Earth Summit in 1998 and Bindaree in 2002, and the winner of the 2010 Cheltenham Gold Cup with Imperial Commander. He also trained Imperial Commander to win the Ryanair Chase at the 2009 Cheltenham Festival. Personal life His sons, Sam and William, both became jockeys. William retired in 2017. Cheltenham winners (17) * Cheltenham Gold Cup - (1) Imperial Commander (2010 * Supreme Novices' Hurdle - (1) Arctic Kinsman (1994) * Ballymore Novices' Hurdle - (3) Gaelstrom (1993), Fundamentalist (2004), The New One (2013) * Broadway Novices' Chase - (2) Young Hustler (1993), Blaklion (2016) * ...
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Bindaree
Bindaree (1994 – September 2024) was an Irish-bred Thoroughbred racehorse who was the winner of the 2002 Grand National when ridden by Jim Culloty and the 2003 Welsh Grand National when partnered by Carl Llewellyn Carl Llewellyn (born 29 July 1965) is an assistant racehorse trainer to Nigel Twiston-Davies and a retired Welsh professional National Hunt jockey. Llewellyn won the Grand National on two occasions along with the Welsh Grand National and Sco .... Bindaree died in September 2024, at the age of 30. Pedigree References 1994 racehorse births 2024 racehorse deaths Racehorses bred in Ireland Racehorses trained in the United Kingdom Thoroughbred family 11-d Grand National winners Welsh Grand National winners Byerley Turk sire line {{racehorse-stub ...
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Leighton Aspell
Leighton Aspell (born 12 June 1976) is a retired Irish jockey, best known for winning both the 2014 and 2015 Grand National's riding Pineau de Re and Many Clouds Personal life Leighton Aspell was born 12 June 1976 in Dublin, Ireland. He grew up in Narraghmore, County Kildare. Aspell has a brother, Paddy, who is also a jockey, and was originally taught to ride by his father, Patrick. Aspell has a fan club, making him "one of the few jockeys" to have such a thing. He and his brother Paddy are second cousins of former Ireland Rugby international Shane Horgan and his actress sister Sharon Horgan. His niece is actress and equestrian show jumper Lilly Aspell. Career Aged 16, Aspell moved from Ireland to Great Britain and joined Reg Hollinshead as an apprentice following in the footsteps of Pat Eddery, Kevin Darley and Walter Swinburn. Initially competing as a flat jockey, Aspell's first win was ''Prime Painter'' trained by Roger Fisher at Hamilton Park in May 1993. He later mov ...
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Nicky Henderson
Nicholas John Henderson (born 10 December 1950) is a British racehorse trainer. He has been British jump racing Champion Trainer six times. Background His father was Johnny Henderson who was one of the founders of the Racecourse Holdings Trust as well as earlier in life being Aide-de-camp to Field Marshal Montgomery. In 2005 two years after Johnny Henderson's death Cheltenham renamed one of the races at the Cheltenham Festival in his honour as the Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Chase. In 2006 Nicky Henderson won this race with a horse called Greenhope. Henderson, educated at Eton College, has been a trainer since 1978, based at Seven Barrows near Lambourn, Berkshire. Previously he was an amateur jockey, and assistant trainer to Fred Winter between 1974 and 1978. Achievements His most notable successes have come with See You Then, winner of the Champion Hurdle in 1985, 1986 and 1987; Remittance Man, winner of the Queen Mother Champion Chase in 1992; Punjabi, winner of ...
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Mick Fitzgerald
Michael Fitzgerald (born 10 May 1970) is a retired Irish National Hunt jockey and current television racing pundit. Fitzgerald rode for the majority of his career in Great Britain and less often Ireland. Career as a Jockey Mick Fitzgerald's career lasted for over 15 years. After experience on the Pony racing circuit in Ireland he began riding out for Richard Lister, a local flat trainer in County Wexford, at the age of 16. This was followed by a move to the Curragh to ride out for John Hayden. Once he had left school at 16, a growth spurt led to an increase in weight forcing a switch to National Hunt racing. Fitzgerald's first National Hunt yards were in South West England with John Jenkins and Richard Tucker. His first two winners came during this association at the end of 1988, the first being a horse called Lover's Secret at Ludlow on 11 December. However it took until 1991/2 National Hunt season for Fitzgerald to obtain regular rides and winners. This was with Jackie Ret ...
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