JACK TUDOR rode into the Virtual Grand National record books — in a race he would probably have had to watch if it had been for real.
The teenage sensation finished first in the computerised running of the world’s most famous race, on Potters Corner.
He beat Walk In The Mill and Any Second Now, with favourite Tiger Roll, seeking a hat-trick, fading into fourth on the run-in under top weight.
It means that, at 17, Tudor joins 1938 hero Bruce Hobbs — successful on Battleship — as the youngest to ride the winner.
Or at least he would have done if it had actually taken place.
Assuming, that is, he had qualified to ride Christian Williams’ ten-year-old by then.
Jockeys need to have ridden at least 15 winners over hurdles — with ten of them in chases — before they can compete. And although Tudor has 23 to his name, only eight had been over fences by the time horse racing was called off in the middle of last month.
It had left trainer Williams facing the possibility of finding a new pilot had Aintree gone ahead. He may well have done it, we’ll never know.
Yesterday, though, it did not matter a jot.
Mind you, the Welsh handler had a plan up his sleeve to ensure Tudor would be in the saddle, had it not been for the lockdown.
Williams said: “I know he had a couple of winners to go but we had a few on the back-burner that planned to pull out if he still needed it.”
And Tudor added: “Christian had a couple of nice chasers to run and my agent was working hard as well, so with a bit of luck I’d have been OK — but who knows?”
At least the teenage jockey will not have spent the night thinking of what might have been — and the prospect of missing out on a hefty payday had it been for real.
He can also tell everyone what a perfect ride he gave it. Even if connections would have gone through the squeakiest bum time ever had it not been a virtual race.
Trainer Williams had jokingly tweeted beforehand that he would be telling Tudor not to hit the front until the elbow, or to win by too far, so the handicapper couldn’t hammer him.
In fact, Potters Corner took the lead going to the last fence and had to withstand the flying finish of Aintree specialist Walk In The Mill.
Yet all told, Tudor and Potters were faultless. And at 18-1 there is every chance the horse would have done exactly the same in the National itself.
After all, he had stamina to burn. He proved that when winning last year’s Midlands equivalent over the same trip.
And in December, Tudor enjoyed the biggest win of his career on him in the Welsh version — which is when people started to talk of him as a serious Aintree candidate.
Williams never had any doubts. At least he was sort of proved right by yesterday’s CGI race which, to be fair to ITV and Carm Productions, was as close as you will get to reality.
We even had a first-time start and, as we have seen in so many packed-field races recently, they are few and far between these days.
When the tapes did go up, Potters Corner was tucked away in the pack, with Tiger Roll in the front rank pretty much from the off.
For a long time it looked as though Rachael Blackmore was going to be the first female jockey to ride the winner, on the hotly fancied Burrows Saint, the eventual fifth. But all the while Tudor was nudging Potters Corner into contention.
On to the heels of the front nine from the Canal Turn, ever closer to the leaders.
Whether he would have made it if 66-1 shot Aso had stayed on his feet we will never know, as he was going clear when they came to two out.
If anyone thought they were not taking it seriously, jockey Charlie Deutsch summed up his agony by tweeting immediately: “Nooooooo!”
Yet for Potters Corner and his teenage pilot it was definitely “yessss” as he hit the front going to the last and clung on by the best part of a length.
It was a frantic finish, with Tudor and James Best, riding the runner-up, both animated in the saddle. Although to be fair, every jockey was. They had no choice, really.
All in all, a fairytale finish of sorts, then. You couldn’t make it up… except they did.
