“I wasn’t entirely happy about him being disqualified on the flat but without that he wouldn’t have won the race at Crayford or a Cat One final so you have to say it was fate.”
Mark Keightley was in typically frank form assessing the Colossus Bet Grand National Final won by Roxholme Biscuit on Sunday night. This is how the race played out.
The result was a 1-2-3 for trainer Ricky Holloway with Biscuit producing a performance worthy of the final, clocking 29.50 on a slow track and justifying the faith of both punters and racing manager Dan Homewood, who tipped him for the final.
Both the winner and runner-up had previoulsy been disqualified for fighting and it was back in January when Biscuit transgressed in the seventh race of his career.
ROXHOLME BISCUIT Colossus Bets Grand National winner Photo: © Steve Nash
The race was over 540 metres on the flat and it was a messy event. Biscuit was clearly struggling to find his way around and was 10 lengths adrift of the leaders on the run-in when ‘having a look’ at his nearest opponent.
Mark Keightley, husband of owner Hayley, who trained Biscuit in that race, said: “In the first instance I blame myself. We would very rarely put a dog in a race at Crayford without a look around and Biscuit found all sorts of bother.
“In fact he was so far behind at the time that he had a look, that it would have been impossible to see the hare.
“Dogs often have a dig on the way to the pick-up and a second and a half later, the race would have been over and the disqualification wouldn’t have happened.
“I was a bit irritated with the Crayford racing office because the dog had been DQ’d before they even got back to the paddock. Now, did Danny Rayment do anything wrong? Absolutely not. He is a top professional. Could he have just marked the dog ‘awkward’ bearing in mind he was unsighted and not affecting the result? Possibly.
“I was furious at the time but thankfully didn’t pick the phone up and make myself look a ****. Until that stage, Biscuit had shown no inclination whatsoever to do anything wrong. He had won three at Romford (by an aggregate 19 lengths) and looked to have a good career on the flat.
“We could have persevered with him on the flat but if he did to it again, which none of us could be certain he wouldn’t, then we would have had no choice other than retirement, so we arguably took the coward’s route.”
So what are the plans going forward?
Mark said: “That is entirely down to Ricky. If he was here, I might be asking Hayley to think about the Essex Vase, but we gave our word to Ricky that once he took the dog on, Biscuit would stay with him for the rest of his career.”
Of course for the Keightleys, there is an additional interest in Biscuit in that they bred him themselves, by Kinloch Brae out of their marathon champion Roxholme Magic.
The litter included the highly talented litter sisters Waltham Queen (29.58 500m Notts) and Waltham Magic (28.28 480m Newc. 37.52 630m Monm.)
Mark said: “Biscuit was definitely the better of the dogs, and as good as the bitches are – and they are very good – I think they are a bit ‘between distances’. In my view Biscuit would have been Cat 1 calibre over both four bends and the short six bends. Whether he could have won Cat 1 is a different story, but in my view he was good enough to compete.”
Sadly, there has been no follow up litter.
Mark said: “Their mum is laying not too feet away from me listening to me talk about her. Unfortunately she has only come into season once since she had the litter, and then she dried up after a few days. We have been waiting ever since. If she doesn’t come in soon, we’ll officially retire her. I wouldn’t put her through it if she is too old.”
Colossus Bets Grand National winner Roxholme Biscuit with connections. From left: Hayley Keightley, Kim Duddy and Ricky Holloway. Photo: © Steve Nash
