The Race - IT was the stuff of which sagas are made, ballads are sung. Out of the mud and melee of the 154th Grand National came the sight of red-and-blue colours, a plucky chesnut horse and northern hopes were raised.
Norman Mason's Red Marauder had survived the chaos and was in with a chance. His only other rival was by now Smarty (trained by Mark Pitman, ridden by Timmy Murphy).
Red Marauder and jockey Richard Guest on Saturday ensured that for the first time since 1960, when Gerry Scott rode Neville Crump's star Merryman III to win the National, the big race has come back to the D&S area. Of course, we also had an interest in Bob Champion's win on Aldaniti, the one which was bred here.
Guest showed superb horsemanship to keep the partnership intact, as his mount was not fluent jumping over the big fences out of the very soft going, but Red Marauder was clearly enjoying himself and ears pricked in the duel with Smarty, he regained the lead and took the victor's spoils.
Two others finished, Blowing Wind (Martin Pipe, Tony McCoy) and last year's winner, Papillon (Ted Walsh in Ireland, Ruby Walsh), both having been remounted and hacked round to gain place money.
Addington Boy unseated J P MacNamara at the first and Paddy's Return got rid of Adrian Maguire at the third before continuing solo and causing much of the chaos later. At the Canal Turn, Paddy's Return decided the fence was not to his liking, jinked and ran along it, careering into others and causing a major pile-up.
There has been much criticism in some quarters - notably the front page of the industry's main newspaper - that the race was run. Racing Week opposes that view. Any hunt follower will ride over more fearsome fences, more tricky ground than found on Saturday. Richard Guest kept his horse "together" and he, Murphy, McCoy and Walsh rode responsibly - as did all the fallers, too.
This was a race in the grand old tradition of steeplechasing, of hunting - and it is, after all, National Hunt racing - when no one was hurt, no horse was injured or killed and when spectators could enjoy "the day just two finished". And the winner was from a permit-holder's small northern yard - a true fairytale ending.
The Owner-Trainer
Norman Mason, who will be 65 come November 13, the son of a Sunderland master baker, started his career as a bouncer but worked his way up to multi-millionaire status and owns a portfolio of leisure activities from amusement centres and pubs to bingo halls.
His involvement in horse racing began some 30 years back when someone gave him a brood mare in payment for a debt and he was a successful owner with the late Gordon Richards and with George Moore at Middleham, with such horses as Music Be Magic, Clever Folly and Centre Attraction.
As a permit holder - licensed to train only his own horses and those of close relatives - Mason found success chiefly after he teamed up with Richard Guest, his assistant trainer and jockey.
Ten winners had been his best annual score before the partnership, which netted 26 in the first year and 30 in 1999-00, his best to date. Already this year the Mason racing enterprise has notched 27, including the Big One.
Of the 21 horses at his Brancepeth Manor Farm, Crook base, ten are called Red something - such as stable stars Red Imp, Red Striker, Red Ark.
Admitting to superstition, Mason was in Canada on a visit to a Chinese district when he saw the buildings were all painted red. Told that the Chinese consider red a lucky colour, he then took up the suffix which now, thanks to Red Marauder, is known throughout the world.
The owner-trainer celebrated by keeping a promise to attend a friend's birthday party at the Black Bull, Moulton, where he was cheered to the rafters. When he got back home, he watched the video several times but couldn't sleep afterwards, he admitted next morning.
The Jockey
Richard Guest, 35, described by Norman Mason as "a miracle worker", was apprenticed to Michael Stoute before joining Toby Balding for eight years. His former boss calls him a natural race-rider who is confident and capable.
Before last weekend, Guest's biggest win was the 1989 Champion Hurdle on Beech Road and he was second on Romany King in the 1992 Grand National to Party Politics.
Other big wins included two Fighting Fifth hurdles at Newcastle and the 1998 First National Bank Gold Cup on Red Marauder. His best season was in 1996-97 when he gained 50 all told.
However, Guest's career has not all been peaks: there have been troughs, too. At Perth in April 1998 he was suspended by the stewards for not trying, for being "too easy" on his mounts.
Feeling victimised, Guest tossed his riding licence through the door of the stewards' room and announced his retirement. Three months later he began as assistant and stable jockey to Mason - and the path led to last weekend's glory.
The talented horseman went straight after racing to the Malton Racing Association Grand National dinner-dance at York racecourse, to raise funds for the Injured Jockeys' Fund, Racing Welfare and for flat jockey Lindsay Charnock, forced to retire through injury.
Guest added his race whip to the auction and gained £2,000 for the funds.
The Horse
Red Marauder, 11, is a gelded son of Gunner B and out of Cover Your Money and was bred by David and Anne Jenks, who were at Aintree to witness their former foal land the big one.
Even more amazingly, Norman Mason also owns the full brother bred by them, Red Striker, who won the novices' handicap chase under Richard Guest on Friday.
Gunner B, 28, is thought to be the oldest active thoroughbred stalling in Europe and is still covering mares at present at the Shade Oak Stud. He also sired the winner of the Fox Hunters' Chase on Thursday, Welburn.
Red Marauder's first win was in 1993, landing a Hexham juvenile hurdle on his debut. From October '94 until his first chase at Hexham in '97 (another winning debut), he was off the track. Four more wins on the reel as a chaser culminated in the Ascot First National Bank Gold Cup in '98, after which he was off again until reappearing to win at Wetherby in February of last year.
A possible target was the Cheltenham Gold Cup, but Guest missed the entry deadline, so the pair instead contested the 2000 National, only to fall at Becher's first time round. This year, as his jubilant jockey put it, "He just wouldn't go down, kept finding an extra leg."
The Stable Lass
Claire Metcalfe, 26, the lass who "does" (looks after, in racing talk) Red Marauder couldn't believe her eyes when she saw "her" horse being one of the last two still going. "It was unreal how it all turned out," she said. "I couldn't believe it when I realised he was going to win."
She is the niece of West Auckland trainer and stud owner Norman Chamberlain and has worked for Norman Mason for three years, looking after Red Marauder since then.
She rode Southern Minstrel at Aintree in the 1996 Fox Hunters Chase, to finish eighth.
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