Does Aidan Coleman have a retainer with J.P. McManus?

The short answer is no, he doesn’t. Following the shock retirement of Barry Geraghty – who had replaced A.P. McCoy as retained rider to J.P. McManus in Britain in 2015 – in July, 2020, Aidan Coleman was short-priced favourite to replace him. However, concerns were voiced, at the time, that Coleman might not represent the type of unrivalled appointment that McManus had favoured in the past. Even Coleman, himself, was keen to play down speculation linking him to the role. He said, ‘I’m very fortunate that I ride for a lot of people, I’m very busy and I ride a lot of nice horses. I’m just concentrating on myself and what will be, will be after that.’

Coleman was one of several jockeys – the others being Richie McLernon, Jonjo O’Neill Jnr. and Richard Johnson – frequently used by McManus in Geraghty’s enforced absence, due to a succession of injuries, in recent seasons. That said, aside from Geraghty and McLernon, no jockey has ridden more winners in McManus’ famous green and gold hooped silks during the last five seasons. The situation became a little clearer in November, 2020, when, while discussing riding plans for the Champion Hurdle winner Epatante, trainer Nicky Henderson said, ‘J.P. [McManus] has got a lot of horses and Aidan is going to be riding a few of them. There’s no retained jockey in this country.’ In the 2021/22 National Hunt season, so far, Coleman has ridden 17 winners, four of which have been for McManus.

 

Who founded Aintree?

Of course, nowadays, Aintree Racecourse is synonymous with the most famous steeplechase in the world, the Grand National. However, the race that became the Grand National, the ‘Grand Liverpool Steeplechase’, was not run for the first time until February, 1836, nearly seven years after Aintree staged its inaugural Flat meeting in July, 1829.

Horse racing at Aintree was the brainchild of local hotelier and sports promoter, William Lynn who, in 1829, approached William Molyneux, Second Earl of Sefton with a view to leasing the land on which the racecourse now stands. Molyneux sanctioned the use of his land for horse racing and, following the construction of a grandstand, the first race, the Croxteth Stakes, was run on July 7 the same year.

The venture proved highly successful and supported, financially, by Molyneux, the Jockey Club and others, Aintree Racecourse flourished. National Hunt racing was introduced in 1835 – although the National Hunt Committee would not be formed until three decades later – and the following year, drawing inspiration from an existing race, the Great St. Albans Steeplechase, Lynn staged his own version. The Grand Liverpool Steeplechase was still known by its original title until 1947, when it was renamed the Grand National, but the word ‘national’ was first used in connection with the 1839 renewal, which is now generally considered the first ‘official’ running of the Grand National.

How Can I Win One Million Pounds by Betting One Pound?

Did you know that just about 50% of the UK population gamble?

That’s lots of winners and losers.

But how do you win a million pounds with one pound? It sounds a challenge if not an impossibility. With the Lotto charging £2 a ticket, you’d need to share the top prize with a friend to even have any chance of winning big.

When it come to betting on horse racing the most likely chance of winning one million pounds for a solitary pound coin is with an accumulator. This bet puts all of your winnings on the next horse. So if you have a 10/1 winner, you’d have £11 going onto the next horse (that’s £10 winnings and your stake money of £1).

So if you had three 10/1 winners what would that win for your quid?

 

That would be £1210.

Not quite the million hey? The good thing about a win accumulator is that you can make as many selections as you wish. And each win means you have more and more money to put into your pocket.

The difficult part is finding all these winners.

In theory, the shorter the price of the horse you pick the better chance it has of winning. So you might be wise to consider how many favourites you would need to win consecutively to get to that million pounds.

This may seem a possibility although in practice it is probably impossible. If you bet your £1 on 21 horses priced even money you would be a millionaire.

This is how it works: £1, £2, £4, £8, £16, £32, £64, £128, £256, £512, £1024, £2048, £4096, £8192, £16384, £32768, £65536, £131072, £262144, £524288, £1048576

(I’ve just won a million pounds!)

Easy!

If you started with £128 you could bring that down to 13 winners.

If you started with £1024 you would need just 10 winners to become a millionaire.

Place your bets, please.

 

Has Donald McCain Jnr. won the Grand National?

As far as the Grand National is concerned, the name ‘McCain’ will always be most closely associated with the late Donald ‘Ginger’ McCain, who saddled the legendary Red Rum to three victories, in 1973, 1974 and 1977. In 2004, with his glory days seemingly far behind him, McCain saddled Amberleigh House to win the Grand National for a fourth time, thereby joining George Dockeray and Fred Rimmell as jointly the most successful trainer in the history of the Aintree showpiece. McCain saddled his final National runners in 2006 and retired from the training ranks, turning over the licence at his stables, on the Cholmondley Castle Estate in Cheshire, to his son, Donald Jnr..

McCain Jnr. Did not make an immediate impact at Aintree, although he did saddle Cloudy Lane, owned by Trevor Hemmings, to finish sixth in the National in 2008 and eighth two years later. However, on an unseasonably hot day in April, 2011, McCain Jnr. followed his father – who watched on, calmly, but proudly, from the paddock – into Aintree folklore by winning the Grand National with Ballabriggs. Also owned by Trevor Hemmings, and ridden by Jason Maguire, Ballabriggs withstood a strong challenge from Oscar Time on the run-in, staying on well to win by 2¼ lengths, with defending champion Don’t Push It a further 12 lengths away in third place.

1 … 87 88 89 90 91 … 153