Racing: Grand recovery by Run For Free

THE STARTER'S name - believe it or not - was Major Mangles, but this time the country got its National without the humiliating foul-ups of Aintree. Run For Free's win here in the Scottish equivalent of Liverpool's tarnished race will have assuaged at least some of the pain felt by racing at seeing its finest offering reduced to a shambles.

A sense of loss, though, will be the only enduring sensation felt by Gee Armytage, who led for much of the way on the 28-1 chance, Merry Master, only to succumb to the brutish power of Run For Free yards from the finish. Victory for Armytage would have provided the cause of women jockeys with its biggest boost - Alex Greaves's win in the 1991 Lincoln Handicap remains the high water mark - but then in its way Run For Free's success was equally heroic.

That the man who waved the Scottish National runners off could be called Major John Mangles was proof of the deepest comedy that runs through horse racing. For at least a circuit it looked as if the Aintree curse had struck again, because Run For Free was left at the start and began his journey some 30 lengths behind Armytage and the other 18 runners. 'Dakyns Boy (the 9-2 favourite) just came across me and my horse planted himself and wouldn't move,' Mark Perrett, Run For Free's rider, said. 'I nearly pulled him up after a circuit. I thought, 'What the hell am I doing here?' '

If anything it worked to Perrett's advantage. After Dakyns Boy had fallen at the eighth fence, Run For Free began to make gradual progress towards the main body of runners and probably benefitted from being absent during the early exchanges. But right up to the final fence it seemed Run For Free's slow start and burden of 11st 10lb would prevent him from catching Armytage and Merry Master, who is trained by the jockey's father, Roddy.

That last jump was decisive, with Run For Free's gawky, muscular frame courting risk with the full dive and Merry Master opting for safety and a sure landing. Then the jockeys got to work and, while Merry Master still bounced along on untapped reserves of energy, it was Perrett's greater tenacity that clinched it as Run For Free staggered past Merry Master near the line to win by a neck. Armytage blamed her defeat down on 'a combination of us not jumping the last and Mark riding out of his skin all the way to the line'.

There were seven veterans of the Aintree farce here and Esha Ness, the horse who won the Grand National that never was, proved much the best of them. He galloped on doggedly to finish fourth, with Party Politics, last year's Liverpool winner, only eighth. It may have taken a fortnight's wait, but the drama of top- class steeplechasing has at last reasserted itself over the memory of Liverpool, even if the horses who appeared at that pantomime have not exactly thrived since.

The country's loss was Ayr's gain with one of the best fields in recent memory assembling for Scotland's foremost jump race. Ayr's tight oval track bears virtually no resemblance to the broad acres of Liverpool, and yesterday's race will have attracted nothing like the bets of the real National, yet the Scottish National assumed an importance out of all proportion to its usual status because of the fiasco of a fortnight back.

There was no animal rights protest and no delay at the start - except for Run For Free - with Ayr's flagman, Dick Hamilton, a retired British Airways accountant, able to stride casually off the track once John Mangles had raised the tapes.

Though Run For Free's win was a sterling triumph over adversity, it was, in the end, another success for the equine aristocracy of the Martin Pipe stable. Gee Armytage's career has oscillated between tabloid pin-up exposure - all that 'bubbly blonde' nonsense - and the obscurity of riding round the smaller tracks.

Once again yesterday, she was trapped somewhere between the two worlds.

Racing results, page 25