F EATURE JONJO O’NEILL SR. & JONJO O’NEILL JR.
heavily involved with the operation. Ginger lived just long enough to see his successor saddle Ballabriggs to an emotional success in the 2011 running of the world’s greatest steeplechase. The Randox Grand National is a race with strong connections to another of racing’s great families – the Scudamores. Michael (1932-2014) partnered the 1959 Aintree hero Oxo and his son Peter went on to be crowned champion jockey on eight occasions. Today his grandsons Tom and Michael are currently a successful Jump jockey and trainer respectively. Aintree success eluded Peter, with his best finish when third on Corbiere in 1985, and Tom is yet to better his sixth place on Vieux Lion Rouge in 2017. However, Michael Scudamore Senior’s Aintree victory is cherished by the family. Tom explained: “My grandfather won the race in 1959 and while I obviously have no recollection of that, it is something the whole family is very proud of. When Oxo won there was a big dinner in Hereford to celebrate a couple of weeks’ later and we have still got the menus and cards from that. “It is something that will always be associated with Grandad, and for all that Dad and I have achieved, there was always the fact that Michael Scudamore had won the Grand National, so he always put us in the shade a bit. “Growing up, we would talk at Sunday lunches for hours about the Grand National. Grandad rode in, I think, 16 consecutive Nationals, which I think is still a record, and dad rode in it 13 or 14 times. I think
Peter and Mick Easterby, the elder statesmen of the greatest family dynasty of trainers in the north of England
My grandfatherwon the Grand National in 1959 – something the family is very proud of
10 KALENDAR
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