Aidan Coleman ready to gatecrash Grand National party
For everyone who had ever said that jockeys know less about picking winners than the rest of us, it was a vindication.
Aidan Coleman had the choice between his stable’s two runners in last year’s John Smith’s Grand National. Neither were exactly at the top of many other people’s list but one was rated a 50-1 shot and the second at twice those odds; easy enough choice really.
And it looked to be the right one. Stan was going well for Coleman, right up to the time that he fell at the seventh fence. Coleman made his way back to the weighing room as Mon Mome, the horse that he had rejected, won for jockey Liam Treadwell, trainer Venetia Williams and owner Vida Bingham.
It was a bit like being invited to the most exclusive party in town and then being denied entry because you have left the invitation card at home. As Coleman recalled earlier this week: “I watched the field go by for the second circuit and I saw Liam and Mon Mome in there. Once I fell, the only horse I wanted to win was Mon Mome. I stopped at the first to listen and Mon Mome was really the only name I could hear so I knew they were clear and I knew once he was over the last he wouldn’t stop. I thought, ‘Brilliant, that’s great for Venetia, Mrs Bingham and Liam, who’s such a great lad’. Only then did I think, ‘Hang on, you’ve just missed a National winner here’.”
It was a tough lesson for a 21-year-old in the narrow margin between victory and defeat but Coleman was an early starter. Brought up in Cork, where his parents are both teachers, he learned the ropes on the Irish pony racing circuit, where he rode over 100 winners.
This may draw images of kiddies on Thelwell cartoon ponies, but the reality is a lot different. “It's brilliant and you learn to deal with the nerves too,” Coleman explained. “There was a lot of betting and the owners always wanted them to win. I was 12 or 13 and had one owner who always told me how many grand he had on his horse, but I never let it get to me. I still don’t.”
Not surprisingly Coleman has ridden Mon Mome in all his five races this season as Williams has plotted a campaign back to Aintree, attempting to become the first horse to win successive Grand Nationals since Red Rum in 1974. It was a slow start, Mon Mome pulling up four fences out behind Denman in the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury in November, but there was progress when he ran in the Grade Two Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle over three miles at Cheltenham the following month as he stayed on nicely to take third, just over 10 lengths behind Tell Massini.
Both of Mon Mome’s next two outings came at Haydock Park - fourth to Our Vic in the Peter Marsh Chase in January and sixth to Silver By Nature in the Blue Square Handicap Chase four weeks later – both of which bore the hallmark of a horse being brought slowly to the boil.
The pot appeared to be boiling nicely when Mon Mome had his final warm up run for the National, in the totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup three weeks ago, coming from way off the pace finish 30 lengths third behind Imperial Commander.
Coleman had the option of riding his yard’s other runner in the National, Flintoff, who is owned in partnership by England cricket star Andrew Flintoff and Paul Beck.
Flintoff the horse had a brief spell away from the Williams yard, where he failed to take any wickets when trained by Tim Vaughan this winter, but Beck has been quoted as saying that Coleman could be on the wrong horse once more. “I’m totally amazed he is the price he is,” Beck said. “He was all wrong at Christmas — all Tim’s horses were ill. The longer he goes, the better he is. I just wish the National was seven miles. I hope Aidan has got it wrong again. He’d probably kill himself if it happened, but in both the Scottish National and the Midlands National, Flintoff finished in front of Mon Mome.”
If Flintoff gatecrashes the party this year it will be Coleman who will be left feeling clean bowled.
Aidan Coleman’s Grand National record: 2008 Mon Mome (10th), 2009 Stan (fell 7th)
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