Exclusive: No Jockey Wins the Grand National Without Luck, says Daryl Jacob

Daryl Jacob says you need a lady luck on your side to win the Grand National. 

Thirty-four horses, cut from 40 in 2023, will battle it out across the 2m2f long course at Aintree on Saturday afternoon. 

Former Irish National Hunt jockey Jacob, who retired at the end of last season, rode over 1,000 winners during his two-decade career. 

And he understandably rates his 2012 triumph in the famous race, when he rode Neptune Collonges to victory, as his greatest ever winner.

“Absolutely, it’s my best achievement,” Jacob told SportsBoom.com in an exclusive interview. 

“It’s the race when I was a kid that got me into racing.”

“It’s an incredibly difficult race to win. You need an enormous amount of luck." 

“You obviously need to be on a good horse as well. It’s a hard race to even get a ride in, never mind getting a fancied ride in the race.”

“The race is changing every year now. But it’s the pinnacle of our career. As a jockey those meetings, Aintree and Cheltenham, are the ones you want to be at and are really special to win."

“If you can ride an Aintree winner or a Cheltenham Festival winner then you’ve had a good career.”

“I’ve been very, very lucky that I got to achieve both of those in my career.”

Like many people in the UK, the Grand National was Jacob’s first introduction into the sport.

He fondly remembers Papillon winning the race in 2000, when Ruby Walsh rode the first of his two champions in the contest.

“It was the race that gripped me whenever I started watching racing back when Papillon won it. Ruby Walsh was riding him,” added Jacob. 

“That was the race I really wanted to be involved in.”

“When my friend the late Kieran Kelly rode for Martin Pipe in the race as a young jockey, he came back and told me about the whole buzz around the weighing room.”

“For whatever reason that was the race that really gripped me and was the one I really wanted to win and I was lucky enough to do that.”

RUNNERS AND RIDERS

Willie Mullins’-trained I Am Maximus, who won the race as 7/1 joint favourite last year, is bidding to become only the sixth horse in history to triumph in successive seasons.

Paul Townsend is looking to emulate Davy Russell, who mounted Tiger Roll in 2018 and 2019, and become only the second jockey this century to defend the crown.

Shark Hanlon’s Herwick looks to be a big contender and boasts a CV which includes wins at the American Grand National and King George VI Chase at Kempton.

Stumptown will be well backed in the market after winning the Glenfarclas Cross County Handicap Chase last time out at the Cheltenham Festival.

Bravemansgame, trained by Paul Nicholls, is another popular pick among the punters, but has failed to hit the heights of 2022 — where he dazzled to King George glory — and 2023.