Mr Snugfit

Mr Snugfit was bought by owner Adrian Greenwood from the sales for £1,200 with a plan to race on the flat. He approached me after the sale with an eye to training the horse.

"He'll take time", I told him. "He's a long term prospect, a jumping horse. You won’t see him at his best until he’s matured. He’s got a lot of growing to do and it'll take time."

I hadn't looked at the colt's breeding, but he had every stamp of a jumper about him. However, when I eventually saw the pedigree I thought I'd been given misinformation as his sire was Jukebox, a sprinter.

We discussed training fees and after the sales I loaded him onto a box and took him to Sheriff Hutton. The horse was given the name 'Mr Snugfit' after the line of trousers that were currently being marketed by his owner, 'Snugfit Slacks'.

Mr Snugfit was a big old fashioned steeplechaser, and won two hurdle races and nine steeplechases. However, he will be best remembered for his being extremely unlucky not to have written his name into Grand National history in 1985. He recorded a hat-trick of wins before the 1985 National with wins at Leicester, Carlisle and Nottingham. In the big race itself he had to carry over a stone more than his allotted weight, running from 'out of the handicap'.

Heavily supported in the betting market, he looked sure to prove the punters right when hitting the front two out. Battling it out with Last Suspect, he looked set to win after Last Suspect made a blunder jumping the third last . However, Last Suspect responded to the coaxing of jockey Hywel Davies caught Mr Snugfit in the final 40 yards, despite flashing his tail he dug deep to win, leaving our Mr Snugfit to settle with the runners up spot.

The following year Mr Snugfit returned to Aintree and was sent off 13-2 favourite. With three fences left Mr Snugfit and most of the 20 runners in front of him he was shaken up by jockey Phil Tuck and passed all but three and finished in fourth place.