IF the new jumps season turns out anything like 2009-10 we’ll be absolutely delighted.
Once again we had more than a century of winners – 105 in fact – and won nearly £1.8 million in prizemoney, plus the £100,000 Order of Merit with Albertas Run.
It gave me a great deal of pleasure to see AP win the jockeys’ championship for the 15th time and for JP to be crowned champion owner in Britain for the fifth time.
To share in their joy of finally winning the Grand National with Don’t Push It was very special.
They both put an enormous amount into the game and we’re extremely lucky to have them on our side here at Jackdaws Castle.
It’s a massive team effort from everyone at the yard and the staff deserve a huge pat on the back for all their hard work through the season.
I’d like to thank all our owners for their support and hope that together we can continue to be successful. We couldn’t do it without them.
We laid the foundations for last season by having a smashing run through the summer which took us to the top of the trainers’ championship.
It included a 1-2 in the Summer Plate at Market Rasen with Nostringsattached, ridden by AP, and Keepitsecret, ridden by Dominic Elsworth.
I remember at the time thinking Dominic had got it, but AP was able to get a terrific run out of Nostringsattached and headed him near the finish.
It wasn’t the only significant win of the summer for Nostringsattached because a few weeks earlier he had made a little bit of history with AP by winning the first-ever chase at Britain’s newest racecourse, Ffos Las in Wales.
When we hosted a media open day here in the autumn I recall telling the reporters during a question and answer session in the indoor school that as well as the older horses such Albertas Run we had a lot of nice young horses for whom we had high hopes.
Thankfully, a number lived up to their promise, notably Get Me Out Of Here who won his first five races, including the totesport Trophy at Newbury, and ran an absolute cracker to finish second at the Cheltenham Festival.
Albertas Run underlined yet again why he is such a popular horse in the yard by achieving the rare feat of winning at two Cheltenham Festivals, adding the Ryanair Chase to the RSA Chase he won two years ago, and following up a few weeks later at the Grand National meeting at Aintree.
Nothing could have prepared us for winning the Grand National with Don’t Push It – I don’t think anything can.
We thought Don’t Push It had a decent chance if he took to the fences because he’s always had a touch of class, but we could never be more than hopeful, especially after the near-misses we’d had in it before.
It took a while, after quite a few parties, but it’s finally sunk in that we’ve won the National and it feels just magical. People have been so very kind with all their thoughtful messages of congratulations. It is very much apperciated.
We won’t be resting on our laurels by any means, though, and now we’re looking forward to trying to do even better in 2010-11.
It won’t be easy, but I can promise we’ll be giving it our best shot.
All the best,
Jonjo
We’d like to say a big ‘thank you’ for everyone’s kind messages after Don’t Push It’s fantastic victory in the Grand National and it was great to see so many people turn out for his homecoming parade the next day.
It’s been an amazing time for everyone involved with Jackdaws Castle and I think it’s only just starting to sink in, to be honest.
It’s a massive team effort and I’m delighted for everyone in the yard, for Alan Berry who looks after Don’t Push It, and for AP and JP, who are both great for the game and have put so much into it over the years, and JP's racing manager Frank Berry.
No one has deserved to win the Grand National more than AP and JP and I couldn’t be more pleased for them.
We’ve had a few near-misses in the race over the years and I was starting to think it was never going to happen.
It was a fantastic boost for everyone when Albertas Run followed up his victory at the Festival by winning at Aintree the day before, but the National’s not the sort of race you can go into feeling confident, especially after the luck we’ve had in it.
Don’t Push It and Can’t Buy Time were both in good form, but everyone knows anything can happen in the National so we couldn’t be confident.
It was a shame Can’t Buy Time and Richie McLernon fell, but happily they were both fine afterwards.
We decided to fit Don’t Push It with earplugs for the first time and I was absolutely amazed how calm he was beforehand.
I was happy enough with the way the race was going for him because he seemed to be enjoying it, AP had him in a great position and he was jumping as well as I’ve ever seen him jump.
Funnily enough, it was the first time we’ve not built National fences for the horses to jump in the build-up to the race – it shows how much that helps!
After Don’t Push It ‘pinged’ the second last I thought with a bit of luck he’d be placed, but I didn’t believe he was going to win until he and AP actually passed the winning post.
It was an amazing feeling and I’ll never forget the reception the crowd gave him.
It’s the people’s race and if you ask most people what they know about racing they’ll say the Grand National and it might be the only race they have a bet on all year.
As a kid it’s the race you dream about riding in and being involved in, so to actually end up winning it is magical.
Don’t Push It can now look forward to spending more time with the half a dozen Jacob sheep he lives with in one of the fields at Jackdaws Castle.
He’s always been a class horse, but he’s a real character as well and when he’s in good mood you’ll see him he chasing the sheep around the field like a dog!
He’ll come back into training later in the year and if all goes well we’ll have another crack at the National.
In the meantime, though, we’re just reflecting on a truly amazing experience which will live with us for the rest of our lives.
Many thanks for sharing in our joy.
Jonjo
We are absolutely thrilled at Jackdaws Castle on DON'T PUSH IT's magnificent win of the 2010 John Smiths Grand National - please come and join us at The Plough Inn at 11.00am on Sunday 11th April 2010 to see the horse parade.
Jonjo and Jacqui
WE were absolutely delighted to win one of the top races of the Cheltenham Festival, the Ryanair Chase, with Albertas Run.
He’s been a fantastic horse for us over the years, winning the RSA Chase at the 2008 Festival, of course, and it was brilliant to see him come good yet again.
He jumped for fun and did everything right under another super ride from AP, who wasn’t going to let a few stitches in his chin following a fall in an earlier race get the better of him!
The man’s amazing and great for racing – there’s no one better to ride a horse.
AP was keen to ride Albertas in the Ryanair rather than the Gold Cup and thankfully it worked out well.
Albertas is very good horse on good ground – he loves it – and he would have won a King George but for Kauto Star.
We knew he'd get the two miles and five furlongs in the Ryanair, so we wanted to make it a good gallop and there was never a worry.
I was so happy for Albertas’ owner, Mr Trevor Hemmings, who's a great man for the game and we’re so pleased to train for him.
Albertas will probably run next at the Grand National meeting on April 8-10. I'm not sure which race yet, though, and I'll have chat with Mr Hemmings about it.
Get Me Out Here ran a cracking race to finish second in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle.
He jumped fantastically and AP gave him a great ride. It was a smashing race to watch.
The only thing that would have made it better would have been if he’d won, but he’s a good horse.
We’ll have a think about running him at Aintree next month too, but we’ll see how he comes out of the Cheltenham race first.
We rounded off an exciting and busy week by winning the Midlands Grand National at Uttoxeter with Synchronised, who loved the heavy ground.
We were going to run him at Cheltenham but the ground would have been too quick for him.
He’s not the biggest but is such a good jumper and now we’ll have a think about the Scottish or the Irish Nationals for him.
The next big meeting on the horizon is Aintree, but there are lots of races to win between now and then and we’ll be doing our best to pick up as many as we can.
Jonjo