When i bred this horse only one thing was in mind for him and that was to WIN the grand national
so I had to plan his career path to fit to the target I had set him I gave him the name AINTREE HERO
as a 2 year old 6 years before he would make his bold attempt on winning the National.

I Knew early on that I would not be able to send him chasing until he was 7 turning 8 so
the plan was to turn him into a staying hurdle superstar.

He started his juvenile career at 3 and notched up 15 grade ones along the way.

Then the big year came so at the start of his 7/8YO Campaign I sent him novice chasing I Needed to get his mark to around 125 to
get into the National Ideally in 3 runs I knew I had to avoid Major Feature Novice Chases as his rating would go too high.

He won an ordinary staying novice chase then a handicap he was still rated only 114 so we threw him into the Ultima
and he won well his Rating was 127 so perfect.

Going into the national he had a prep run in the Cleeve hurdle.


THE BIG DAY
so we got to Aintree everything was perfect the horse was in great condition the weight was 9st12 (Bottom Weight)
The tipsters all fancied him and the bookies started to run scared opening him up at 7s the public backed him into
4s before a late drift he started at 9/2 all was set.

He dropped in at the back and his jockey put him asleep for the 1st circuit he jumped like a bull
pinging every fence just biding his time everything was going to plan and at the start of the 2nd circuit Matty started to
make his move slowly picking them off one by one flying each fence with not one error along the way
He hit the front 2 out with 3 challengers around him one finishing strong but coming to the final furlong AINTREE HERO
was not a stopping and forged ahead to cross the line to live up to the name and to hit the target right on the bullseye
a plan hatched 8 year previously.

This the most satisfying coup I Have every pulled off hope you dont mind me sharing his story what a horse.

A great story, and very impressive planning PJ. Do you still have pics of the sire and dam?

I am somewhat surprised at the amount of speed and acceleration he has for a National winner. Most of them are real slow old dogs who'd struggle against the donkeys on Brighton Beach.

I picked up an unraced 4yo long distance chaser for, if I recall, about £380k in a random auction. In the National he finished 2nd three consecutive years and 3rd on his last attempt as an 11yo (beaten no more than 4 lengths in any of them), weighted up to the eyeballs due to my useless handicap planning. He had less than half of each of speed and acceleration compared to yours. He was a true 4m2f + racehorse according to his profile.

He did however pick up the Scottish National on his last ever outing as an 11yo.

Raise a glass to the grand old stayers.

ps - really wish I could post screen captures in this forum without having to go through a 3rd party website.

i do mate give me a sec i will post them

Here are his parents as unraced 3YO

Really nice breeding both families unrelated but both families have plenty grand national winners in lineage

Ah, can see where the speed and acceleration come from now, almost identical on sire and dam.

That constitution bar barely registers on either of them. Makes it even more of an impressive achievement.

As an additional thoguht, I've noticed when mixing small build with average build horses that the optimum race weight can get a bit whacky. It's one factor I always pay alot of attention to in manual training.