ALDANITI

OWNER - Nick Embiricos

TRAINER - Josh Gifford

JOCKEY - Bob Champion

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS - Won 1981 Whitbread Trial Chase, 1981 Grand National; 2nd 1979 Scottish Grand National; 3rd 1977 Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup, 1979 Cheltenham Gold Cup.

BrookBob Champion was thirty-one when in the summer of 1979 he was told he had cancer. One of Britain's top jump jockeys, he had ridden the winners of over 350 races in his career and was recognised as one of the toughest of a tough breed. Now he faced the biggest obstacle he would ever have to clear, for the only chance of cure lay in a long and horrifically painful course of chemotherapy. The alternative was death within as little as eight months.

After two courses of treatment, he was dri­ven home to Wiltshire, where he would remain until the start of the third course. Here he was telephoned regularly by trainer Josh Gifford, for whom he had been first jockey before his illness and who had assured him that his position as stable jockey would be waiting for him as soon as he had recovered. The horse of which Bob Cham­pion especially wanted news was Aldaniti.

In 1979 Aldaniti was nine years old, a tall, tough, old-fashioned sort of steeplechaser who had been bought by Josh Gifford at the Ascot sales in May 1974. Aldaniti was back at Ascot for his first race - over hurdles - in January 1975 and, ridden by Bob Champion, won easily. He was then sold to ship broker Nick Embiricos, one of Gifford's owners. A bad tendon strain in Aldaniti's off-foreleg had to be fired, and he was on the sidelines for eighteen months. Once back in training he was put over fences: after unseating Champion at Newbury he won at Ascot on 1st April 1977 and was soon being singled out by his connections as a future Grand National winner.

Whatever his eventual Liverpool prospects, he was becoming a fine chaser and ran third to Bachelors Hall and Fort Devon in the 1977 Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup at Newbury. But he had chipped two bones in the pastern of his off·hind leg in the race and was sidelined again until fully recovered, remaining in his box from December 1977 until July 1978. The following March Bob Champion rode him into third place behind Alverton in 1979 the Cheltenham Gold Cup (at 40-1) and the month after that Aldaniti ran second to Fighting Fit in the Scottish National at Ayr.

Despite his injury problems, Aldaniti was clearly a candidate for the Grand National, and to the stricken Bob Champion the idea of winning the Liverpool race on this horse became an inspiration as he awaited his third course of chemotherapy. In the event it took six courses of treatment to eradicate the cancer, and by the time of the 1980 Grand National he was in no condition to take part. But nor was Aldaniti, who had broken down again at Sandown Park in November 1979 and was to spend most of 1980 recuperating at his owner's Sussex home. Meanwhile, Bob Champion had left hospital in January that year. The illness and its treatment had left him bald and so weak that he could hardly stand, but throughout the spring and summer he gradually regained his fitness. His comeback ride - in a flat race at Fairhill, Maryland - was a winning one, and his first competitive ride in Britain since his illness came on Roadhead in a steeplechase at Stratford on 30 August 1980: 'Hail Champion the Wonder Horseman', headlined the Sporting Life. Just over three weeks later he won on Physicist at Fontwell Park. Bob Champion was back.

So, eventually, was Aldaniti. In February 1981, after fifteen months hors de combat, he made yet another reappearance, this time in the valuable Whitbread Trial Chase at Ascot. Starting at 14-1 and not expected to be fully fit after his long lay-off, he won easily. Liverpool beckoned, just so long as his legs remained sound.

They did, and on 4 April 1981 Aldaniti started 10-1 second favourite in a field of thirty-nine. Favourite at 8-1 was Spartan Missile, bred, owned, trained and ridden by 54-year-old John Thorne: this brilliant hunter-chaser had twice won the Foxhunters' Chase on the course and was strongly supported to thwart the Champion dream. The 1979 winner Rubstic was on offer at 11-1, followed by 14-1 Zongalero and 16-1 Royal Exile, Royal Stuart and Royal Mail.

Bob Champion had been advised by Fred Winter, who had twice ridden the winner of the Grand National, to take a pull halfway to the first fence in order to prevent his mount from rushing at it. But the horse was not to be restrained: As we came to the fence Aldaniti stood off far too far away, pinged it but came down much too steep. I slipped my reins to the end of the buckle but thought we had gone. What a waste for both of us. He was on the ground, down. His nose and knees scraping the grass. We'd had it.

They hadn't. Aldaniti recovered his balance and sped on towards the second.

When he reached it he stood off even further and almost landed on top of it though he never felt like falling. He scraped his belly on it. That hurt him and taught him an even sharper lesson.

After the third he learned to treat the Liverpool fences with the respect they deserved: from then on his jumping was exemplary, and by the eleventh he had pulled his way into the lead. He turned back towards the stands, jumped nimbly over the thirteenth and fourteenth and soared over the Chair with Sebastian V, Royal Stuart and Zongalero keeping him company and Spartan Missile starting to make ground from the rear. At Becher's Brook on the second circuit he put in a stupendous leap, pitched on landing but was confidently gathered together by Champion to continue on his triumphant way, pursued by Rubstic and Royal Mail. Spartan Missile had made a bad mistake at the eighteenth and Thorne was giving him plenty of time to recover. At the third last Rubstic was back -pedalling and it was still the two crocks - Bob Champion and Aldaniti - making the best of their way home from Royal Mail.

As Royal Mail hit the second last hard the fairy­tale result seemed inevitable. Champion let Aldaniti take the last fence in his own time and then set off up the run-in which the jockey later described as 'the loneliest place in the world'. Meanwhile behind him John Thorne was desperately trying to provide some company, for Spartan Missile was running on at a tremendous rate. Third at the last fence, he passed Royal Mail and with just over a furlong to go was finishing so strongly that it looked as if he must catch Aldaniti. Champion picked up his whip and waved it at his mount to encourage him over those last few yards, and Aldaniti responded gamely. He was dead tired but he kept up his gallop, and at the post had four lengths to spare over Spartan Missile, with Royal Mail two lengths further back in third.

The dream had come true. Bob Champion had conquered cancer and Aintree and a horse three times crippled had galloped his rivals into submission. In 1983 the jockey would found the Bob Champion Cancer Trust, and four years later Aldaniti himself (who fell at the first fence in the 1982 National) would play his part in the Trust's fundraising activities by undertaking a 250-mile charity walk from London to Liverpool, arriving at the course to massive acclaim on the day of the Grand National: among the riders who partnered the 1981 hero on his trek was the Princess Royal. But Bob Champion's immediate duties after his victory included the obligatory press conference, and his words there sum up why the 1981 Grand National has gone down in history not only as one of the most emotional races ever run, but as perhaps the most inspirational: I rode this race for all the patients in hospital. And all the people who look after them. My only wish is that my winning shows them that there is always hope, and all battles can be won.