The Grand National is a survival of the fittest

The Grand National is a race that is survived as much as it is won, writes Geoffrey Riddle, but amateur Sam Waley-Cohen is not used to settling.

Runners approach The Chair - the 15th flight in the Grand National at Aintree racecourse. This jump is so difficult, at 5ft 2in tall with a 6ft ditch in front that is 3ft deep, competitors will only hShow more

Alongside the ever-lasting glory that goes hand in hand with any victory in the Grand National in front of 70,000 people, the winning jockey of the 164th running of the world's most famous steeplechase tonight will receive a cheque in excess of £50,000 (Dh300,912).

The prize for negotiating Aintree's daunting 7,200m course is one of British racing's biggest paydays and yet, if Sam Waley-Cohen can guide his mount, Oscar Time, over the 30 spruce fences and cross the line in first place, he will get nothing. Neither will Mr R McNamara, Mr P Mullins, nor Miss N Carberry, the only woman riding in the race.

The reason? All four of them follow in the footsteps of the great British amateur jockeys that have ridden in the race before them.

The increasing demands of professional sport have squeezed all but the most dedicated amateur out of the frame. Only in golf and numerous athletic disciplines do the part-timers have any hope of beating their paid rivals. Racing is another of those sports where the non-paid sportsman can still mix it with the best. There have been 41 amateurs who have reached the pinnacle of jump racing by winning the Grand National. In the glory years of the early 20th century, Jack Anthony won it three times between 1911 and 1920, but since 1945 there have been only five who have managed to juggle their day jobs with the demands of keeping their weight down and their fitness up.

"I don't think in the last 21 years a day has gone past without someone mentioning the National to me, either at home or abroad," said Marcus Armytage, the last amateur to ride successfully in the historic race. Armytage was a journalist by trade when, in 1990, he secured the fastest winning time when he partnered Mr Frisk to victory. "I was just relieved to win. I had around 40 winners during my entire career, and none of those were significant. Rightly or wrongly, I felt I was the weak link to the whole team, so I was just relieved I didn't mess it up - it's a very public place to get something wrong. It was my one chance to win the National, and I'm just glad I was competent enough to take it."

Waley-Cohen is cut from the same cloth as Armytage, who attended Eton College, the famous English secondary school that counts among its alumni David Cameron, the current British Prime Minister. The two are great friends, and Waley-Cohen clearly moves in the correct social circles, having secured an invitation to the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton at Westminster Abbey later this month. In a long list of buccaneering hobbies, Waley-Cohen enjoys skiing, bungee-jumping, mountaineering and has been flying helicopters since he was 21. In fact, he flew himself down from London last month before riding at the Cheltenham Festival, where he became the first amateur to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup for 30 years. When not setting his pulse racing during his latest stint of derring-do, Waley-Cohen found the time to set up Portman Healthcare, a chain of dental practices which since 2008 has grown to employ a staff of 170. It makes one wonder how the 28-year-old fits it all in.

"There are seven days in the week and I don't waste any of them," Waley-Cohen said. "I always try to make the effort to get up and do it. I don't sleep much. If I get tired I catch up with a power nap and then head off again."

Although Waley-Cohen's drive has been inherited from his father, Robert, who in 2007 sold his Alliance Medical business for Dh3.6bn to Dubai International Capital, his energy stems from the belief that his time on this planet is extremely precious.

The name of his brother, Tom, is sewn into his saddle. In 2004 Tom died, aged 20, after a 10-year battle with cancer.

After getting up at 5.30am to ride out, look after his business and hold down a relationship with his fiancee, Annabel Ballin, Waley-Cohen still finds the time to raise funds for Tom's Ward at the Children's Hospital in Oxford.

"Thomas's death reinforced in me the idea that life's very short, so make every minute count. Don't waste time - get up, get going. Have the energy and ambition to say, 'right, let's give it a go'."

Waley-Cohen boasts three successes over the fearsome Grand National fences having guided Katarino to wins in the Fox Hunters' Chase in 2005 and 2006, and Liberthine to victory in the Topham Chase in 2006.

Those wins can only reinforce his hand when taking on the professionals, according to David Dunsdon, an amateur jockey who rode in the 2005 race. Dunsdon was just 22 when he partnered Joly Bey to 14th position seven years ago. He was racing against Ruby Walsh, perhaps the most naturally gifted jockey of the past 50 years, as well as Tony McCoy, the winner of over 3,000 races.

"I think Sam will draw strength from his experience on Liberthine and Katarino, and he'll be confident having just won the Gold Cup," said Dunsdon. "You are part of the team that got the horse there, and the only advantage amateurs have is to know the horse well. The professionals are fitter than us, they know Aintree better, so it helps to have an intimate relationship with your horse."

Last season McCoy rode in 839 races, and combined with morning work on the gallops and schooling at fences, the 15-time champion is at the peak of physical fitness. Waley-Cohen has partnered just 29 mounts on a racecourse this season.

"It's hard to work at the fitness, and you've got to work a lot harder than the professionals who ride every day. Tony McCoy probably wouldn't know what a pair of running shorts were," added Armytage, who won his final career race as an amateur at Nad al Sheba in 2000.

What all amateurs agree on is that their entire focus of the three-day Grand National meeting is on their one ride. The professional jockeys may be better at concentrating their skills in the saddle to a better synergy, but with several rides the day before the big race they are at a disadvantage.

"You have been so focused for days, weeks, and perhaps even years, about what it means to take part," said Dunsdon, who rode Joly Bey an estimated 200 times in work before their Aintree assignment. "You haven't the time to think, 'this is fun'. You don't really take in what is going on around you until afterwards. It's a privilege to take part."

Some of the greatest jockeys in British racing history have failed to add the Grand National to their glittering CVs. Eight-time champion jockey Peter Scudamore's best finish was third, and seven-time champion John Francome managed a runner-up spot in 1980.

It took McCoy 15 attempts before he won the race last year on Don't Push It, on whom he rides in the race once more today.

Dunsdon feels a "tinge of regret" every year that he does not ride at Aintree, and if a single taste of the course's charms has the potential to make one an addict for life then winning it is the pinnacle for anyone involved in the sport.

Mick Fitzgerald said the experience to be "better than sex," when he won in 1996 on Rough Quest.

The Grand National is one of the most difficult races to even complete. The smallest obstacle of the 30, the Water Jump, stands at 4ft 6in. What is lacks in height, however, it makes up in length because on the landing side there is a 9ft 6in ditch filled with water. The Chair, the 15th flight in the race, stands at 5ft 2in, has a 6ft ditch in front of it and is 3ft deep. It is so monstrous the 40 runners are only required to jump it once. In 1928, 42 horses came under the starter's orders but at the Canal Turn, where the field are required to turn 90 degrees on landing, Easter Hero got stuck on top of the fence, preventing the majority of the field from continuing. Of the horses to navigate the carnage, only Tipperary Tim reached the finish unscathed. Billy Barton was remounted on the course to become the only other finisher.

The difficulty of the course is not confined to the days of yore, either. In heavy rain only four horses came home in the 2001 race won by Red Marauder, and the third and fourth were remounted, a practice which has subsequently been banned. Since then just under 35 per cent of the horses to line-up have completed the course.

It is what makes the race both great and tragic. Last year five horses died during the three-day meet, though not in the race itself. Death is part of this visceral sport and, like Formula One and mountaineering, it is the regular avoidance of tragedy that keeps certain sections of the crowd enthralled.

The first few ascents of the north face of the Eiger in Switzerland ended in death and at least 64 climbers have died trying. For Waley-Cohen, who has climbed and skied down Mount Everest, it is this dangerous thrill that will spur him on to guide Oscar Time either to glory, or to safety.

"He's awesome, a brilliant jumper," said Waley-Cohen. "The National is probably my favourite race, ahead of the Gold Cup. Obviously the Gold Cup has the top horses, on the biggest stage for the biggest prize, yet for me, the lure of the Grand National is what it represents. There's ego, greed, envy, danger, death, blood. It's life distilled into a few minutes, with glory and wealth at one end and disappointment and devastation at the other."

With all that on offer, who needs the money?