SNOW LEOPARDESS Snow Leopardess and Aidan Coleman (r) on the way to winning at Bangor-on-Dee
It’s Snow-time!
It’s had Red Rum, Devon Loch, Aldaniti and the 18th Duke of Alburquerque. But the storied 183 years of the Randox Grand National have never witnessed anything like Snow Leopardess. Victory for the Charlie Longsdon-saddled grey mare at Aintree on April 9 would break new ground. David Yates explains why as he meets her trainer.
David Yates F
orget that Snow Leopardess would end a 71-year wait for the 14th of her gender to win the world’s greatest steeplechase. None
of the previous 13, including Nickel Coin in 1951, did so having adjourned from racing to experience motherhood. “She’s been a character from the word ‘go’,”
says Longsdon of the 10-year-old, owned and bred by Marietta Fox-Pitt, matriarch of the celebrated eventing family and mother of three-time Olympic medallist and six-time Burghley Horse Trials winner, William. “They are an amazing family. They have done most things in the equestrian world and their
horses seem to follow suit – they seem to do most things just as well. “Marietta lost her husband Oliver just before this
mare was born. When she was born it was the first time Marietta had smiled aſter her husband’s death. “She loves the other horses but nothing to the
degree of this mare.” Snow Leopardess started on course with a bumper success at Doncaster in February 2016, going on to score in Listed grade at Gowran Park seven months later. A first campaign over hurdles yielded three wins, including Newbury’s valuable EBF & TBA Mares’ “National Hunt” Novices’ Hurdle (watch here) in
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