Tony McCoy may be concerned to learn that his mount in next week’s Grand National has been described as “timid” and “soft” by no less an authority than its trainer, Jonjo O’Neill. But Shutthefrontdoor still has excellent prospects in the famous Aintree race, according to O’Neill, who provided McCoy with his previous winning ride in the race, Don’t Push It.
Asked to compare the two horses, O’Neill said he was happier with Shutthefrontdoor’s preparation than he had been with his eventual winner at the same stage in 2010. “Don’t Push It was a bit of a law unto himself. This is a lovely horse, this is a real old pet. The other fella was half mad, really, a character. This fella could be a little bit timid, a bit soft.”
That suggestion caused a ripple of consternation among the assembled company for a media morning at O’Neill’s stables here, east of Cheltenham, on Wednesday. Timid horses, it was suggested, should probably not be 7-1 favourite for famously demanding 40-runner steeplechases.
Hastily the trainer explained he had been talking more about Shutthefrontdoor’s character around the stable. “I don’t see it as a problem that way. What I mean is, he’s a right old softie. He’d put his head on your shoulder.
“The other fella’d bite you, that’s the difference, or he’d give you a nudge with his head and put you flying. This fella is a lovely horse, great manners, lovely attitude. He is just a pleasure to have around the place.
“He has a little lack of experience, if you want to complain, but I think he’s quite clever. He’s pretty accurate and he knows what he’s doing. You’ll know after the first three or four [fences], whether he’s taken to it or not and, if he has, he’ll run a blinder.”
Shutthefrontdoor, last year’s Irish National winner, might have been a contender for this season’s Cheltenham Gold Cup if all had gone smoothly but he developed a sinus abscess early in the year that interrupted his training. O’Neill is entirely happy with him now, especially after two recent spins around Southwell “to knock the freshness off him”.
There seems little room for doubt that McCoy will choose to ride Shutthefrontdoor in preference to the Irish-based alternative Cause Of Causes, though O’Neill could not resist a couple of jovial barbs about the fact that the champion jockey has yet to commit to his horse. Asked what he would do if McCoy jumped the other way, the trainer replied cheerily: “Sure, we’ll get somebody else. He’s not a difficult ride.”
McCoy and O’Neill have been averaging 60 to 70 winners a year together and there is no other trainer who will miss the retiring champ more. But O’Neill faces the McCoy-less future with his customary phlegmatism. “Of course, we’ll miss him but once one rose dies, another one comes alive, don’t they?”
He claims to have “no idea” whether JP McManus, the owner who retains McCoy and has most of the horses in this stable, will retain another jockey for next winter. But either way he foresees another rider being brought into the yard to support the existing team.
“Oh yeah, hopefully we have enough horses to be able to afford to do that. But we’re happy with the lads riding them. There’s three or four good young lads in the yard and they’ll all get more chances now. We’ll see how it goes.”
On the subject of McCoy’s qualities, O’Neill spoke most enthusiastically of his skills as an educator of young horses learning to jump. “I’d probably get more kick out of him here at home than I would on the racecourse, when I see him schooling.
“He’d go out on a horse that doesn’t jump well and runs off to the left or right or whatever. Next time, he comes up as straight as a die and you think, I’m looking at the wrong horse. That’s AP at his best.
“I’d often be coming off a schooling morning and you’d be smiling to yourself, thinking, that was brilliant to watch and I was the only one that saw it. We’ll never see the likes of him again. It was nice to be involved with him.”