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You are in: Other Sports: Horse Racing: Grand National 2002 |
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Saturday, 6 April, 2002, 17:29 GMT 18:29 UK
Winning trainer reveals plan to quit
Twiston-Davies: Cannot compete with bigger yards
By BBC Sport Online's Frank Keogh at Aintree
Winning Grand National trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies has revealed he was on the verge of quitting. Twiston-Davies, who tasted victory in the Aintree spectacular for a second time thanks to Bindaree, said it was now "50-50" whether he would carry on. "I thought I didn't have very good horses and was thinking about doing something else," he said after watching his horse fight back to hold off What's Up Boys' challenge. "I don't know what happens now."
Twiston-Davies, who also won the National in 1998 with Earth Summit, said he was finding it difficult to compete with the big money purchases at other yards. "I felt that I had achieved about all I could by now and there was not much more to aim at, and the horses by and large were not very good," he said. The Gloucestershire trainer said he would still be putting up half of his yard for sale. "I have not totally decided that I will not be training next season, but I may still stick to that plan," he added. Twiston-Davies has been one of the leading trainers in recent years. He won the 2000 Whitbread Gold Cup with Beau, and the 2001 Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup thanks to Kings Road.
He said his relatively unsuccessful campaign this season, prior to the National, had not led to his decision to consider his future. Bindaree, a 20-1 winner, is owned by Raymond Mould, who inherited a number of horses when his wife Jenny died of cancer in November 2000. "They have been the most wonderfully loyal owners to me. They were my very first owners when I started training and they have been with me ever since," said Twiston-Davies. "One of the problems is that although I do have such splendid owners, it is increasingly hard for us to compete at the top end of the market with all the money that is involved there nowadays." Mould was one of the few people who knew the trainer was considering giving up. Grumpy horse He said a party to celebrate the National win would be held at the Hollow Bottom pub in the Cotswolds he owns in partnership with Twiston-Davies and his assistant Peter Scudamore, plus trainer Charles Egerton. Of Bindaree, Mould said: "He is not really a very happy horse. He can be quite bad-tempered and maybe it was because of that attitude that he was able to fight back the way he did. "Now that we have won the race we shall have to come back and try again next year, but if my late wife Jenny had been alive she would not have had a runner in the race. She did not like the National." |
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See also:
06 Apr 02 | Grand National 2002
06 Apr 02 | Horse Racing
06 Apr 02 | Horse Racing
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