The Grand National

The Grand National

with eventual winner in yellow on the right

There are a few things in Britain which are unique to the place a few things which happen and when you live here you take them for granted.

There is the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race (on the River Thames), The Derby, The Eurovision Song Contest and The Grand National.

The Eurovision Song Contest is a song contest between the European Countries – although Israel won it one year – the Boat Race is only peculiar to Britain but the Grand National is the greatest steeple chase in the world.

If you remember there was a movie about it called National Velvet which was one of the earlier films of Elizabeth Taylor.

The audience figures for the National go into many many millions as it is transmitted all over the world and as it is transmitted by the BBC it is the best uninterrupted coverage you can expect.

There are bookies on every corner in Britain – some would say too many – and it is the bookies greatest day of the year. The Derby would be the only other contender for this but usually nearly everybody will have a bet.

If they don't have a bet people will probably belong to a sweepstake at work where the name of a horse is drawn from a hat and if you are drawn the winner you take all.

You know which horse you have drawn before the race, of course, so you can follow it on the TV.

These days you can also follow it at the bookies on huge screens and there is quite an atmosphere in the betting shops.

Betting shops are usually miserable places as gamblers are not usually full of personalities. They keep themselves to themselves and some pretend they know something – something they got from the horses mouth. Others pretend they understand the form book but most pretend they win most of the time.

About 20 years ago there was a 10% gambling tax in Britain and you could either pay on your stake or on your take. If you won, obviously, it would be better to pay on your stake but most gamblers would pay on their take. I asked a few why they did this, as I always paid on my stake, and they said they lost most of the time.

But now there is no tax on gambling at all and no vigorish, like in America; the bookie has to work out by the amount of money that is being wagered on each horse to work out the odds and that is how they make their profit. If a favourite wins it is a bad day for the bookies. But they don't have many bad days – I mean have you ever seen a bookie or a farmer on a bike?

So on Grand National Day – and Derby Day – the miserable, scruffy, smelly, fag smoking gamblers cram in to the corners of the betting shops to make way for the flutterers, flitterers and first time gamblers.

Many years ago – in fact in 1961 when I was working on the motor bikes at the post office – there was a sweepstake at work and I drew a horse called Nicholas Silver – a grey.

I think it cost me a shilling which – for the youngsters out there – was one twelfth of a pound; in other words 5p or 5 pence.

I don't think a grey had ever won the National but in any case I went to the bookies, which were illegal in those days, and put a bet on. I put a whole pound which was about a sixth of my wages; it was a big bet as I was a fool.

The bookies was in a suburb of Birmingham called Selly Oak and I had to go up an alley to find the place.

As I've mentioned before, I had to wrap my pound note into a piece of paper and on the paper I wrote Nicholas Silver £1 win and handed it to a man standing in a door way.

The horse won at 33-1; so I won the sweep at work and also a lot of money from the bookies. On the piece of paper was my nome-de-plume and I had to quote this when I went to the bookies and he handed me £34; £33 for the odds and my £1 stake back.

This was a great deal of money to me back then and I wasn't really old enough to gamble but as it was an illegal bookies in any case what does it matter?

Official gambling in those days was only by credit; you had to have an account with the bookies and you paid your bill at the end of the month or whatever – and you were usually posh.

On Saturday the race was won by a grey again and this was the first time a grey horse has won since Nicholas Silver in 1961 and guess what the price was. 33-1.

And did I back it? No!

I watched the race on TV and kicked myself when Neptune Collonges came in first; there he is, above, in the yellow with the Irish jockey on his back; in fact most of the jockeys here are from Ireland.

It was one of the most exciting races I can remember and it took a photo finish to determine the winner.

I did fancy a horse called Sea Bass, which was ridden by a woman (from Ireland, of course) and it came in 3^rd making her the highest placed female in Grand National History.

The big tragedy was that they had to put 2 horses down. It is the price we, or the horses, have to pay for such an exciting and unique event and we have to ask ourselves if it's worth it.

The decision to put the horses down is not made lightly. If a horse breaks a leg or a fetlock they have to be destroyed as there is no way you can 'contain' a horse so they kill the horse before they are in any real pain - and it's heartbreaking.

The people that usually complain about this don't usually have anything to do with horses and the people that put them down are usually the people who look after them like members of the family every day of the year.