The racing fan-turned-analyst now savouring Grand National glory with Corach Rambler

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Imagine being a teenage fan of horse racing and then, one day, finding yourself as the person who plots the campaign of a Grand National winner. It's 'dream come true' stuff but also pleasingly achievable - not like fantasising about riding the winner, which, for most of us, is very, very obviously off the agenda from an early age.

Anyway, that's Paul McIvor, who has been an increasingly busy part of Lucinda Russell's operation since joining in the summer of 2017. That was just months after One For Arthur's National victory and so I'd suggest hiring McIvor is an example of a team responding productively to success, investing in the future.

However you divide up the credit and the causation, these are heady times for Russell's stable near Loch Leven. She has now won the National twice since 2017, while no other British-based trainer has been able to win it at all since 2015.

She sent five horses to Aintree's three-day meeting and came away with two wins and two seconds, the other success being Apple Away in a Grade 1 novice hurdle despite odds of 16-1. Her tally of 64 wins for the season is just two short of her best ever and her 18 per cent strike-rate is easily her best. And she is quietly on her way to becoming a dual-purpose trainer, with a steadily increasing number of Flat winners in recent seasons.

Clearly, there is plenty of credit to go around and some of it must belong to McIvor, whose connection with the yard began after he moved on from Timeform, where he had spent several years as a race reporter - "a tremendous grounding. It still informs most of the way I look at races and approach things now". He emailed several trainers with suggestions about the kind of things he might be able to help them with.

Russell and her partner, Peter Scudamore, were interested. "I started doing bits and pieces for them, pre-race previews and post-race analysis, which they would send to owners.

"They invited me up to the yard and we agreed how it would work. It's grown from there. I took a greater control of the race-planning and then it became helping with the sales and watching all the Irish point-to-point videos and going through the catalogues. They've been brilliant to me, giving me so many opportunities, it's been fabulous."

McIvor summarises his job as being to get the right horses into the yard and then get them into the right races. "We speak to jockeys after they've ridden and you take things from Scu and Lucinda and we have a weekly meeting over the phone once a week with the head lads, just piecing things together.

"Scu might ring me and say, 'This horse has just worked really well,' and we might have to change plans here and there."

Initially, McIvor was also working for other clients but his work for Russell took over. "Things were going well, so I thought I should really concentrate on Lucinda and see where it can take us. And it's gone pretty well for the last two years.

"It's a big team effort. What works with Scu and Lucinda is, we all come at it from a slightly different angle. For me, it's form, it's a bit more objective, it's analysing videos and times and ratings. The communication is good and I feel very involved, even though I'm remote for most of the time."

That's because McIvor is based in London. He made it up to Liverpool, of course, to see Corach Rambler's triumph.

"On the second circuit, he was going so well, I was switching between watching the screen and then watching the floor because I thought, oh, he's going to have a right chance here.

"He's a difficult horse to get a handle of and to know where his limit is because he only does what he has to. That was one of my concerns beforehand.

"I thought he'd really take to it because he's an intelligent horse, he doesn't waste any energy, he's a clever jumper. But I was worried about the long run-in. I could see him idling, just like he did. But he had plenty in hand."

McIvor remembers the auction in November 2020 when Corach Rambler was bought for just £17,000. Incredibly, the team bought Ahoy Senor on the same day, for £50,000; he was one lot after Jonbon fetched £570,000.

"Maybe it was because all eyes were on Jonbon, Ahoy Senor kind of slipped through the net," McIvor says. He admits to having been keener on buying Ahoy Senor than Corach Rambler.

"You watch Ahoy Senor's point, he bombed out in front, jumped from fence to fence and finished out so strongly ... This horse is a machine. If he'd been by Walk In The Park and won an Irish point-to-point like that, he'd have gone for £350,000. But it was £50,000 because it was a British point-to-point and he was by Dylan Thomas.

"So I was very sweet on him but Scu really saw something in Corach. From a form perspective, I think he took five or six goes to win a point-to-point and he was a six-year-old. I was like, 'Scu, are you sure? The form isn't anything special.'

"He was galloping with his head in the air like you see it now, he was doing it then. But there was something...

"Lucinda and Scu work so hard. They drive up and down the country to these sales and race-meetings. They absolutely deserve it."

McIvor, meanwhile, has landed himself a dream job, some years after getting hooked on the game through the enthusiasm of a family member who liked a Lucky15 on a Saturday. "Teenage Paul would have bitten your hand off to be in this position," he says.

What happens next for Corach Rambler will be the subject of much discussion between owners and trainer this summer. McIvor would like to be ambitious.

"I know he was ahead of the handicapper when he won on Saturday but from the way he won there and at Cheltenham, he was value for more than the margin. I'd love to give him a crack at level-weights, Graded races next year and just see. I think he deserves a shot at it. You don't really know where his limit is."

Corach Rambler and Derek Fox come home in front at AintreeCredit: Grossick Racing

And what should we make of Ahoy Senor's second place behind Shishkin? "I thought it was a brilliant run.

"From where we were four weeks ago, to think he would come back from that and just get pipped at Aintree in a Grade 1 ... Okay, his jumping wasn't perfect but he ran a brilliant race from the front. I think a tough campaign caught up with him in the last furlong and a bit.

"Hopefully, he'll be at the peak of his powers next year, with all that experience behind him."

So it might be a bit tricky keeping the pair of them apart next season. Has a Scottish stable ever started a jumps season with two potential Gold Cup candidates? It doesn't seem likely.

More immediately, there's Saturday's Coral Scottish Grand National, which the stable won with Mighty Thunder two years ago. Corach Rambler is entered but that was presumably a fallback in case he happened to unseat at an early stage on Saturday.

That leaves the yard with Your Own Story and Mighty Thunder. Both need a lot of withdrawals in order to make the cut but everyone else will have to start worrying if they get in.

Answers to last Monday's Grand National quiz

1. Peaty Sandy
2. Ashley House
3. Hallo Dandy and West Tip
4. Essex
5. Little Polveir
6. Friendly Henry
7. The Thinker
8. Durham Edition
9. Garrison Savannah
10. Docklands Express
11. Royal Athlete
12. Moorcroft Boy
13. Dubacilla
14. Encore Un Peu
15. Go Ballistic
16. Challenger Du Luc
17. Fiddling The Facts
18. Mely Moss
19. Smarty
20. Wicked Crack
21. Supreme Glory
22. Hedgehunter
23. Clan Royal
24. Royal Auclair
25. Monkerhostin
26. King Johns Castle
27. Cerium
28. Preists Leap
29. State Of Play
30. Seabass
31. Teaforthree
32. Long Run
33. Shutthefrontdoor
34. Vics Canvas
35. Cause Of Causes
36. Pleasant Company
37. Rathvinden
38. Aso
39. Balko Des Flos
40. Santini

Monday's picks

A couple of in-form trainers can hopefully get us through a tricky-looking day on our way to more appealing fare at Newmarket and Cheltenham in midweek. Borders trainer Katie Scott is one of them, having had winners on three consecutive days last week, missing out on a fourth by only a short head.

She sends Guest List (1.50) to Redcar and this filly may now be ready to give something closer to her best than we saw in four quick runs for Scott in the autumn. She'd been rated 78 with Kevin Ryan early last year but gets to run here off 65.

Guest List13:50 Redcar

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Jky: Sam James Tnr: Katie Scott

Her two best runs, by Racing Post Ratings, were on the softest ground she's encountered, so the time really should be right to give her a chance. She's 14-1.

James Ferguson is even more obviously in form, having won with half of his last ten winners, including at 5-1, 6-1 and 8-1. Glorious Lion (4.10) won't be that, 5-2 more like, but the newly gelded three-year-old ought to have plenty more to offer as he makes his handicap debut with cheekpieces fitted.

Glorious Lion16:10 Redcar

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Jky: James Doyle Tnr: James Ferguson

Our Monday tipster landed an 11-2 winner last week and has four more fancies 

Two things to look out for today . . .

1. Marshman represents Britain in the Prix Sigy at Chantilly, a Group 3 sprint for three-year-olds. It's a race with a fair record of British success, four visitors having won since 2010, most recently Sands Of Mali in 2018. Clive Cox's Caturra started favourite last year but got collared close home by Miramar. Marshman was runner-up in the Gimcrack last summer and fifth in the Middle Park. He represents Karl Burke, who won the 2016 Sigy with Quiet Reflection, on her way to glory in the Commonwealth Cup and the Haydock Sprint Cup. Marshman holds an entry in next month's Duke Of York Stakes, part of the Dante meeting. Donnacha O'Brien is also in the Sigy, with Wodao, who chased home Tenebrism at Cork last week.

2. There's a couple of well-related debutants in the middle-distance novice at Windsor. Apolo, a grey colt from the Gosden yard, is a Kingman half-brother to the top-class Snow Lantern, which of course means he is out of Sky Lantern, winner of the 1,000 Guineas and the Coronation Stakes. Apolo wears a tongue tie and cheekpieces for this debut. Among his six rivals is Clever Relation, the second foal out of Sweet Selection, who won the Cesarewitch and the Sagaro for Hughie Morrison, also the trainer of Clever Relation.

Apolo15:10 Windsor

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Jky: Collen Storey Tnr: John & Thady Gosden

Read these next:

What's on this week: Newmarket's Craven meeting the warm-up to Scottish Grand National at Ayr 

'I wanted to give him a big hug and say thanks' - Corach Rambler's connections proud as punch 

The Front Runner is our latest email newsletter available exclusively to Members' Club Ultimate subscribers. Chris Cook, a four-time Racing Reporter of the Year award winner, provides his take on the day's biggest stories and tips for the upcoming racing every morning from Monday to Friday. Not a Members' Club Ultimate subscriber? Click here to join today and also receive our Ultimate Daily emails plus our full range of fantastic website and newspaper content.