If Ballyfitz wins Saturday's Grand National it will be a dream come true for Fred Mills and his son Wayne.
For 20 years ago Fred was devastated when Wayne slipped from a roof he was working on and seriously damaged his spine.
Wayne was taken to Stoke Mandeville Hospital to convalesce for six months and to encourage his recovery his dad persuaded Peter Scudamore, then the reigning champion jump jockey, to make a visit.
“Peter was very good and went down to Stoke Mandeville within a couple of days of my making contact,” said Fred.
When the father and son asked the champion jockey about owning a horse, he advised them not to. But they persevered and so Scudamore sold them a horse, by Petoski, who they named in his honour, Petosku. Trained by Nigel Twiston-Davies, the horse won seven times, providing enough encouragement to keep them in the racing game.
Horses like Miss Shakira, Mister Rm, Waynesworld and C’Monthehammers have kept up the strike rate, but even so the success of the family roofing and cladding business in South Ockendon, Essex, SD Samuels, has been integral to sustaining the operation.
The insurance settlement that Wayne received at 21, two years after the accident, was invested into the roofing and cladding business. Wayne had been a budding footballer and played for Arsenal at a junior level a couple of times before stepping out for Rainham Town. His football contacts meant that SD Samuels broke into the stadia business, starting off at West Ham.
SD Samuels has also completed contracts at Twickenham, Chelsea FC, Tottenham Hotspur FC and Sunderland FC.
The father and son partnership, both in business and with the horses, found their best performer yet when they invested in Ballyfitz nearly six years ago. The 10-year-old bay gelding has won eight of his 23 races and earned over £150,000 in prize money.
“To be honest, he’s paid for a lot of the others,” admitted 38-year-old Wayne. But those earnings would be relative chicken-feed if Ballyfitz were to win the £925,000 John Smith’s Grand National at Aintree on Saturday, April 10, and one person is confident he can.
Not Wayne, who wasn’t even certain about entering the horse, but his dad.
“Ballyfitz is in there with the right weight (10st 9lb) and, while I know he can put in the occasional bad jump, if he gets round I can’t see him finishing out of the top three - and 66/1 well, that’s taking the mick,” said 60-year-old Fred.
They will both be at Aintree for the Johns Smith’s Grand National, with Wayne’s wheelchair bedecked with the colours of West Ham United, which are also their racing colours.
"This is all for Wayne," said Fred, "There’s other people who would have let such a blow stop them doing things, but Wayne really lives his life.”
