Trainer Lucinda Russell hailed 'brave, honest and kind' One For Arthur after her 2017 Randox Grand National winner died from Colic, aged 14.
The then eight-year-old, who was owned by Belinda McClung and Deborah Thomson under the name of the Two Golf Widows, became only the second ever winner trained in Scotland and first since Rubstic in 1979, when he triumphed at Aintree Racecourse in April 2017.
Under Derek Fox, One For Arthur had won Warwick's Classic Chase in the January before he went on to Aintree glory that same season. He couldn't defend his crown in 2018 due to injury but returned the following year to run well and finish sixth behind dual Grand National winner Tiger Roll in 2019. He was also due to run in the 2020 National, but the world's greatest steeplechase was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He was retired by connections later that year in November.
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Trainer Russell said: "He was everything a woman wants in a man. He was brave, honest and kind. He was the ideal National horse. He was such an athlete, had loads of stamina, lots of bravery, loved the fences and took his time. He was just a fabulous horse to have and set the yard off, and hopefully he would be proud of what we are doing now. He was the springboard for our yard. He had a great retirement. He was 14 fitted a lot into his years."
After retiring from the track, One For Arthur had a second career in the show ring, in the care of Aisling Dwan, daughter of the Grand National winner's breeder, John. He competed at the Dublin Horse Show in August alongside Tiger Roll and returned to Scotland to take part in hunter trials under former work-rider Ailsa McClung.
Former champion jumps jockey Peter Scudamore, who is Russell's partner and assistant at Arlarly House Stables in Kinross, believes it was the women who trained and looked after him that helped him to great success.
Scudamore said: "It's only just dawning on us how important he was to us. What was so lovely was that all the girls were around him. The Two Golf Widows are wonderful characters and then obviously Lucinda trained him. Ailsa McClung looked after him at home and rode him at home. Then Jamie Duff and Erin Walker played a huge part in looking after him.
"Basically, he was owned by women, trained by a woman and looked after by girls all the time and I feel very sad for them, because they adored him and gave him a most magnificent life. He had a good life, but it is they who will miss him, because they adored him. He came back to Dumfries just before Christmas to Ailsa and she took him out hunting and cross country and he loved it. He was a great character."
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One For Arthur won seven times during his career and earned £622,437 in prize-money. But it is his Aintree success that he will be most remembered for. Scudamore added: "I think the women surrounding him saw his character more than I did to begin with, but then I just watched him blossom towards that race. I really do feel that, because of the love and the adoration the girls gave him, I feel his full character came through. He knew he'd won. He reacted off the adoration he was given."
The Russell stable currently has the favourite for this year's Grand National in Corach Rambler, who is a best-priced 7-1 with most bookmakers. Corach Rambler is on course to run in the Aintree showpiece on April 15 following a second successive victory in the Ultima Handicap Chase at the recent Cheltenham Festival.
