Racing: The ugly giant awaits a fairytale ending

Remember Arazi? The wonder horse of 1991 who was supposed to be the second coming of Pegasus after his glorious victory in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile? Sadly, he was wingless as a three-year-old and, despite an abundance of opportunity, his subsequent stud career never got off the ground either. The little chestnut is now plying his trade as a progenitor in Switzerland, but before he went into bloodstock exile he fathered two horses who may yet make their mark in the annals of the Turf.

One is Congaree, one of the best dirt horses in the States. The other will be strutting his stuff in the Grand National at Aintree on Saturday.

Before Arazi was revealed as a failure, he trysted with the best of brides, and in his second year at Sheikh Mohammed's Dalham Hall Stud in Newmarket, the Aga Khan sent the Arc runner-up, Behera, to his court. The result was a creature who proved to be his sire's first and, for quite a while, only top-level winner. The trouble was, the Grade One Tolworth Hurdle at Sandown was not exactly what those who planned the union of all those wonderful Flat genes had in mind.

But Behrajan – for it is he – is a classic reminder of the vagaries of Dame Nature. Bred to win a Derby, he may well win a National.

At first glance, and with the greatest respect to his devoted band of owners, the question is whether Behrajan – enormously tall and angular, long-legged, long- necked, long-eared – has giraffe blood in his veins. Physically, he resembles neither of his parents, with his rather washy light bay coat, broad white blaze and one of those white-ringed pop-eyes that often go with his facial markings.

Doubtless Behera thought he was beautiful, but trainer Henry Daly certainly looked askance when the gelding arrived at Downton Hall, near Ludlow, at a cost of £10,500, delivery included. "I wondered why David Powell, the agent who found him for us in France, had sent us something that measured 17.1 hands as a three-year-old and had a poached-egg eye," recalled Daly. "He was bought unseen, which is probably just as well."

Behrajan was culled by the Aga after two unimpressive efforts in France for Alain de Royer-Dupré. But that Flat racing's loss was to be jump racing's gain was not immediately apparent.

"The first time we tried to teach him to jump he fell over a pole on the ground," said Daly. "I had to phone Simon Marsh, who organised the syndicate that owns him, and tell him we had run into a slight technical glitch. The horse was so big and gangly he didn't know which foot to put where. Richard [Johnson, his jockey] did an immense amount of work with him just to get to the stage where he could jump a hurdle, never mind a fence."

Daly and Marsh go back to the days in the Eighties when they shared a house on a Kentucky stud while cutting their teeth in the horse business. The acquisition of Behrajan stemmed from a boozy summer party in the Royal Ascot car park six years ago when Daly, about to take over the licence at the Shropshire stables from Captain Tim Forster, reminded his long-time friend of a promise made to become a patron when he became a trainer. Marsh rounded up a gang of chums to chip in for a cheap buy with which to have some fun round the country tracks.

The seven-strong Behrajan Partnership, which includes the trainer, is distinctly upmarket, despite the bargain-basement price of their pride and joy. Marsh is racing and stud manager to Lord and Lady Lloyd-Webber; Lady Lloyd-Webber, the former top-notch eventer Madeleine Gurdon, established the Watership Down Stud, which regularly buys and sells blue-bloods for seven-figure sums; Johnny Weatherby is chairman of the family company that has been racing's secretariat since 1770; Mark and Rupert Wiggin's people own the Downton Hall estate; and Jeremy Graham is a Boston-based stockbroker.

To their and Daly's surprise, Behrajan set the pattern for the future by bolting in first time out over hurdles, by 14 lengths at 20-1. Now, with his gawky frame better furnished at the age of eight, he has won 11 of his 26 races over hurdles and fences, been placed in 10 (including a Stayers' Hurdle, and Newbury and Leopardstown Hennessy Gold Cups) and earned a shade over £250,000 in prize money. His most recent runs stand close inspection: wins in a valuable handicap at Ascot under top-weight and in one of the Cheltenham Gold Cup trials, the Pillar Chase; and a fine staying-on fifth in the Gold Cup itself. Not bad for a hobby horse.

"On that first run I thought that if he finished sixth, he would have run very well, which just shows what a fine judge I was," said Daly. "I know I've called him slow in the past, but really it's only the Best Mates of the world, on quicker ground, that make him look it. And if his being merely high-class, not absolutely top-class, is a problem, it's not a bad one to have."

Behrajan's heredity may not shriek Aintree, but his upbringing does. Daly, 36, learned his trade with Forster, a close family friend and a man who won the Grand National thrice, with Well To Do, Ben Nevis and Last Suspect.

The Forster traits that Daly has inherited as he has developed his own skills include a love of the staying chaser that is the heart of the game, and the patience to give a horse time. His handling of Young Spartacus to win the Mildmay of Flete at Cheltenham after 14 months off was a professional feat of the highest order. "It was," Daly admits, "very satisfying."

But not half as satisfying, one suspects, as emulating his late mentor by bringing another National back to Shropshire. The two men also shared a self-effacing pessimism, and a wry sense of the ridiculous. Should Behrajan – the ugly swan – triumph, Henry's hoorays will be from the heart.