Owner's £1million Grand National dream reignited by Splash Of Ginge

The £1 million Randox Health Grand National dream of John Neild is alive again after Splash Of Ginge ploughed through the mud to win the BetVictor Gold Cup at Cheltenham on Saturday.

Liverpool-born Neild, a former stable lad with Henry Candy, bought the horse for £20,000 with the sole intention of trying to land a “home win” at Aintree and placed a bet on him winning the world’s most famous race before he had ever set foot on a racecourse.

The nine-year-old’s courageous neck victory at Prestbury Park under Tom Bellamy in the £160,000 feature race at the November meeting means he is now likely to be rated high enough to get in to the iconic Aintree contest in April.

“I had £1,000 on Splash Of Ginge winning the Grand National at any time in his life at 1,000-1 before he had ever run,” Neild said, before quickly adding: “But don’t tell the wife, she’ll divorce me.

“It’s a million quid but, regardless of that, he’s the horse of a lifetime for us. You can’t buy nothing like him.

“He cost us £20,000, but won us about £280,000. I own him but, for me, this horse belongs to people who can’t afford to have a horse.

“I’m so incredibly lucky to have him. He’s won three races here at Cheltenham - some people have horses all their life and never win here.”

Boisterous celebrations at The Hollow Bottom pub, about ten miles from the track and just down the road from the yard of trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies, are no SP returned. They could last until midweek, too, if they on the same scale as when Splash Of Ginge won the Betfair Hurdle in 2014 at 33-1.

“John took over the Hollow for four days after that win and I think his bar bill was something like £17,000,” Twiston-Davies said.

Neild encouraged staff and customers at the pub to back Splash Of Ginge on Saturday morning and said he would double their winnings if the horse obliged.

“I might need the £90,000 [first prize] to break even,” he said. “We enjoy our wins - they are few and far between.”

Splash Of Ginge is stamina-bred, being by Oscar, and the next part of the Grand National equation will be for Twiston-Davies to get him qualified.

One of the criteria for running in the world’s most famous race is that horses must have at least one top-four finish in a chase over three miles or more and Splash Of Ginge has yet to manage that.

It is unlikely Neild will care about that this evening. He skipped around the soggy paddock in isolation as Splash Of Ginge fended off the challenge of Starchitect by a neck and was quickly mobbed by the delirious 40-strong Ginger Army. The winner is 40-1 with Sky Bet for the Grand National.

Conditions proved too much for many, with Kylemore Lough, the 4-1 favourite, being among those to pull up.

Neild's family and friends celebrated wildly in the paddock with him. Together, they sang anthems about their hero horse in between hugging and kissing each other - plus anybody else who happened to cross their path.

The majority were on at 50-1 and their confidence in him grew with every drop of rain that fell from the gloomy Cotswold skies. By the end of the afternoon the ground was bordering on heavy after 11mm of rain and, revitalised by the conditions, Splash Of Ginge recaptured his old sparkle.

Neild dedicated the win to Ryan Hatch, who guided Splash Of Ginge to his Betfair Hurdle but has been out of action for a year with a back injury suffered in a heavy fall at Cheltenham.

"He has a big following does ol' Ginge," Twiston-Davies said with understatement. "He has been a remarkable horse and just lost his confidence a bit over fences last season, so we put him back over hurdles and he has come back this season like a bull.

"He ran really well at Wetherby [last time out] and as soon as this rain kept on and on we were hopeful as the soft ground is the key to him. It is probably heavy ground now.

"He just doesn't notice it when it's this soft - it was the same when he won the Betfair Hurdle. It's just come right today.”

Twiston-Davies, saddling the winner of the race for the fourth time, admitted he thought Foxtail Hill was going to be his principal challenger but he faded after making the running. He also confessed that he had considered not running the winner.

"I was thinking Foxtail Hill was going to do the job but he didn't handle the ground,” he said. “I was talking to John about whether we were going to run him or not and I was thinking about taking him out before we declared.

"In the end, I thought we better run him though. I think I'll be out with the owners tonight - they'll insist on it. The whole of Liverpool has turned up.

“It’s also great to give Tom Bellamy a chance as he's not having a great time at the moment. John likes to give the young jockeys a chance.”

Splash Of Ginge has now won races at 33-1, 25-1 and 12-1 (PA)

Bellamy, having only his 44th ride of the season, who had never previously ridden a winner at the meeting, was visibly stunned. It was his sixth winner of the campaign and by far the biggest of his career.

“I'm still pinching myself, I can't believe it,” he said. “First and foremost, the person sitting here today should be Ryan Hatch. He is my best friend and I live with him. I am obviously gutted for him, but at the same time I know he will be delighted for me.

"The owners and Nigel said to me, 'Give him loads of light all the way round; he doesn't want to be behind a horse.' He hung from the word go so I was in behind horses the whole way, and I was thinking, 'This is not what I need', but it worked out perfectly.

“I thought the way he was going was too good to be true, and was thinking he was going to stop at any minute, but he just didn't.”

It could be a similar story on Saturday night - and beyond - in The Hollow Bottom.