SIMON NOTT blog: Shop Window

When I was a lad there were two sporting events that transcended their loyal fan base and enthralled what appeared to be the whole population, writes SIMON NOTT.

The first was the FA Cup Final, the TV coverage started in the morning and built up to a crescendo culminating in the match presentation and if I remember rightly even players celebrating with champagne in the communal baths after the match. Even if you weren’t a fan of either finalist teams or even football itself, you were on FA Cup Final Day. The first I really remember was 1973 when I was eight, Sunderland beat Leeds 1-0 after an Ian Porterfield volley and some Jim Montgomery heroics in goal.

I’ve followed Sunderland ever since, supporting would be a strong word now, but in my youth, how I suffered, but that’s another story.

The other sporting event was the Grand National. It was another day where it appeared the whole nation became horseracing fans. There was a real buzz around our non-racing household, in fact the whole street. Everyone had their sweepstake horses from work, and we as a family used to back our fancies with our Great Uncle Frank who ran the post office in Rackenford.

He’d take the bets on tick over the phone, he wasn’t an illegal bookie at any other time of the year but must have fancied his chances on pin sticker’s day. I remember Rag Trade and Red Rum winning, I also remember wondering why they had other races on before it and why people that ‘made books’ took the bets as well as my Great Uncle Frank. Unlike my compulsion to follow Sunderland, Grand National day didn’t get me hooked on horseracing, that came later.

When it did, Grand National Day was the one where you could hardly get in past the green and blue streamers. Those once a year punters were a pain in the arse when you were doing your best to knock out what was left of your wages on the Hackney Saturday morning card. One thing that was certain though, it was a day when racing showcased what a fantastic sport it is and compelled people to actually go into those dens of iniquity otherwise known as betting shops and have a bet.

In recent years I have been honoured to have interviewed three Grand National winning jockeys, in chronological order, Graham Thorner, Nigel Hawke and Mick Fitzgerald for the #BettingPeople series.

All three of them now immortalised for having ridden the winner of the world’s most famous race. Mick Fitzgerald said that it was the pinnacle of his career adding that nobody outside of racing remembers Champion Jockeys, if you rode the winner of the Grand National you were never forgotten, or words to that affect. Graham Thorner and Nigel Hawke would no doubt agree. The race was magical for everyone involved.

As we approach the 2024 Grand National, doesn’t it have a different feel? It was once the date on the calendar racing was proudest of, a day where the sport donned its Saturday best and polished that shop window to gleaming. Now, rather than being proud of our showcase we can use a 1970s metaphor, it’s as if we’re collectively watching Doctor Who through our fingers from behind the sofa. Not terrified of the Daleks, worse than them, we’re only going to emerge and breathe again once the race is over and tragic incident free.

With no equine fatalities, racing can kick on for another year and focus on its own internal issues while those that would see not just our shop window boarded up, but our whole shop shut. Until next year when they train their sights on horseracing once again, and so it goes.

SIMON NOTT

Views of authors do not necessarily represent views of Star Sports Bookmakers.

Simon Nott is author of: Skint Mob! Tales from the Betting Ring
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