The Grand National’s reputation for fairytale endings could deliver again if Latenightpass lands the £1 million race on Saturday.
A woman, Rachael Blackmore, and male amateurs, most recently Sam Waley-Cohen, have celebrated victory in the world famous event at Aintree. Now Gina Andrews will attempt to become the first female amateur jockey to win on a horse trained by her champion point-to-point trainer husband Tom Ellis, and owned by her mother-in-law.
The 32-year-old, who became a Cheltenham Festival winner in 2017, has already won around the Grand National course. Two years ago she enjoyed the thrill of a lifetime when claiming the Aintree Foxhunters on Latenightpass. They returned to finish fourth last year.
Yet despite such solid credentials for a tilt at the big one, it was only an afterthought to tackle the Grand National.
“It was never the plan,” admits Andrews. “It hadn’t even been considered for this season. The cross country race at Cheltenham was always the plan purely because I was keen to have a go in it. I’d never had an opportunity to ride in the race so him being the jumper that he is, it made sense to give it a go with him.
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“He obviously ended up running very well to finish second the first time in November. After that run there was a bit of talk about the Grand National but even then we hadn’t really considered that being an option. It was going to be the cross country at the next meeting in December and then the Festival. He was going to have to go up considerably in the handicap to get into the National so next time he was going to have to be winning and winning well.
“We’d heard Minella Indo was going for the race too and was he really going to be beating him? But being a handicap he had every chance to, won very well and went up by enough we were confident he would get in at Aintree.”
Latenightpass was trained for those races by Dan Skelton, whose brother Harry is married to Andrews’ sister Bridget.
Latenightpass wins the Aintree Foxhunters in 2022 (Getty Images)He has since returned to Ellis who was granted a public trainer’s licence in March. Latenightpass will be his debut runner.
“We'd been talking about going public at the end of the season but once the Grand National was on the cards we decided it would be brilliant to train him ourselves,” said Andrews.
“I’ve never ridden in the Grand National so I’m pretty excited. It’s hard to believe it’s a reality. It’s one of the biggest races in the world and I am only an amateur so I feel very honoured and privileged to be taking part. Amateurs can win it, you just need a willing partner.
“Latenightpass has always been a very sound jumper. He is economical and accurate which is why he has completed the course all three times he has tackled it.”
She goes on: “Winning the Aintree Foxhunters was the best day in my riding career. I’ve ridden a Cheltenham Festival winner, which was brilliant, but the fact that I won the Foxhunters on a horse owned by my mother-in-law which my husband trained who we have had from the beginning made it even more special. He’s been the horse of a lifetime for us so anything else he achieves now is a bonus.”
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