For good or ill, Aintree’s finger of fate has singled out an abundance of horses and humans since a horse called Lottery won the first Grand National in 1839. Rarely, though, has it exerted such unlikely and life-changing effects as it did towards the end of the pandemic in 2020, when it decided to point at a business student at Heriot-Watt University called Cameron Sword.
Sword is the unlikeliest member of The Ramblers, the seven-strong group of enthusiasts that is, in turn, one of the unlikeliest assortments of individuals ever to own a Grand National winner. They had never met until, in late 2020, they all paid £3,400 for a one-seventh share in Corach Rambler, last year’s Aintree hero, and they all had their own reasons for taking the plunge.
One, a Scot who had relocated to Australia, wanted a connection to his homeland. Another, who had recently lost his wife, needed something to give him a fresh sense of purpose. For Sword, it was a chance to take his growing passion for racing to a new level. “It could have happened to anyone really,” he said this week.
“During Covid, racing was still happening because you could wear masks and socially-distance, so I was watching the racing and the more I watched, the more interested I was. I went away and did a lot of research, on how the breeding works, how the handicapping works, and everything else.
“But coming towards the end of Covid, no one was buying horses, and it was the last share in the only horse for sale in the yard.”
The local trainer in question was Lucinda Russell, whose partner and assistant, Peter Scudamore, paid £17,000 for Corach Rambler. One of the seven £3,000 shares was sold back to his breeder, and the rest were advertised for sale online.
Corach Rambler won his first start for his new owners at 14-1, and had already banked roughly 10 times his purchase price in prize money, including two wins at the Cheltenham Festival, when he landed the £500,000 first prize for the National.
Sword suggested afterwards that, in addition to being the best investment he would ever make, it probably meant too that he had peaked too soon in his ownership career.
Twelve months later, though, the buzz is still there, and there is a real chance that the best is yet to come. Having already joined one highly exclusive club as the owner of a Grand National winner, he will head to Aintree on Saturday hoping to see Corach Rambler become only the fourth horse in the last 125 years to win the race twice.
“The past year has gone very quick, to think that we’re now at National week already,” Sword says. “It’s difficult to put into words, because obviously it’s a different feeling, you’re going there with a horse that’s won the National.
“But it’s not any less special, and to me it’s the greatest race in the calendar. Of course, the best race in terms of quality would be the [Cheltenham] Gold Cup but being from the north and coming from what’s often deemed an underdog yard, the people’s race is what captures our imagination.”
Technically at least, Sword is still a student, but he is already planning for a future in racing that would have seemed unimaginable just a few years ago. He has already launched a racing syndicate with three horses in the Russell yard and will be looking to recruit horses and owners for next season in the months ahead.
“You’ll never get an opportunity to propel yourself in racing like Corach’s given myself and everyone else involved with him,” he says. “I’m young, it’s what I want to do.
“I’ve got three exams left and then I finish on 1 May, and as soon as that’s done, it’s in the car to Newmarket and then back to the sales to do it all again. I can’t wait to be done with uni, to be honest, and then get cracking with the racing. I’m still just 22. I want to be in racing for the foreseeable.”
Sword fully appreciates the huge odds he has overcome to get as far as he has already as an owner, never mind adding in the possibility that he and his fellow Ramblers could continue to live the dream for another year.
But alongside the £1 each-way punters in the betting shops and online, and everyone who picked a runner in the office sweep, he will know as the tape snaps up at around 4pm on Saturday afternoon that all possibilities are in play for the next 10 minutes.
“What’s so special about the National is that 34 horses are going to line up and the majority of those are going to have incredible stories behind them,” he says.
“When [top weight] Conflated came out [earlier in the week] it meant that Kitty’s Light got a place, and if Corach didn’t win, I’d be rooting for Kitty’s Light, because obviously for Christian Williams and his family, it’s been such a tough year [since the trainer’s daughter, Betsy, was diagnosed with leukaemia].
“There’s another trainer and small owner that really shows that anything’s possible. The minute you buy a share in a racehorse, you can start dreaming, and it’s the one race where you don’t have to spend hundreds of thousands to compete at the top level.”
