Grand National 2014: Former England rugby star Mike Tindall hoping for ...

When Tindall raised his hand to start the bidding for a tiny

5-year-old horse called Monbeg Dude in the late stages of a

bloodstock auction at Cheltenham in May 2010, the last thing he

expected was to be paying out 12,000 pounds ($20,000) for him later

that evening. 

“I thought I would be out-bid,” Tindall said. “But the

bidding suddenly stopped.” 

As it turns out, “The Dude” is proving to be an absolute

bargain for Tindall and his fellow owners — professional rugby

players James Simpson-Daniel and Nicky Robinson. 

The winner of the Welsh Grand National in 2012, the gelding

has since claimed two victories at Cheltenham and is now one of the

favorites for the Grand National at Aintree, the world’s most

famous and grueling horse race whose prize money has jumped to 1

million pounds ($1.65 million) this year for the first time.

Grand National 2014

sweepstake kit

The 40-horse race is known as the toughest test of jumping in

the world, with 30 fences over a 4{-mile (6,400-meter)

course. 

A sell-out crowd of 71,000 fans will be at Aintree for the

167th running of the National, the highlight of a three-day

festival that began on Thursday. The race will be screened to a

worldwide TV audience of about 600 million and bookmakers estimate

about 350 million pounds ($580 million) will be bet on it in

Britain alone — five times more than is wagered on the English

Derby. 

The National is always under scrutiny because of the

potential for horse fatalities but modifications to the course

ahead of the 2013 race, which included softening the high fences

and improving landing areas and course irrigation, appear to have

improved the situation. 

Last year, all 40 horses returned safely and only two fell.

Only 17 horses finished the race but there was no repeat of the

carnage that marred recent Nationals, with two horses dying in the

2011 and ’12 editions. Twenty-one horses have died over the Grand

National fences since 2001. 

Tindall, a member of England’s World Cup-winning rugby team

in 2003, only became interested in horse racing once he started

dating Zara Phillips, the granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II. They

married in 2011. 

Phillips, who won a silver medal in equestrian in the London

Olympics in 2012, called her then-boyfriend an “idiot” for getting

into a position where he had to buy a horse he didn’t want. But she

has played a part in Monbeg Dude’s rise, helping the horse with his

jumping technique, which was deemed to be his biggest

weakness. 

“The progression is there to see, now he bounces over his

fences,” Tindall says. “He travels a lot better now and is

conserving his energy and speed.”

Because of his back story, Monbeg Dude is generating a lot of

interest ahead of the National. His current odds are 14-1 but they

have come down considerably. 

The favorite is Teaforthree, who was third in last year’s

race — won by 66-1 shot Auroras Encore — and is bidding to become

the first Welsh-trained winner of the race since 1905. He finished

eighth in last month’s Cheltenham Gold Cup, but that race was used

as something of a practice run ahead of a shot at the

National. 

“I think he has all the attributes you need for the race,”

part owner Nigel Roddis said. “He jumps and stays and seemed to be

really enjoying it last year.” 

Tidal Bay is another of the favorites and, at age 13, is

seeking to become the first horse older than 12 to win the National

since 1923.

AP

Article source: http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/irfu-hit-by-26m-shortfall-in-expected-earnings-from-five-and-10-year-tickets-1.1469464

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Grand National 2014: Former England rugby star Mike Tindall hoping for ...