Madden Counting On Numbersix

There is no shame playing second fiddle to Ruby Walsh, but to claim it is fun to do so has the same hollow beat as a kettledrum.

Given Walsh's brilliance, trainers either side of the Irish Sea have for years clamoured to recruit him to steer their stable stars to glory on the big occasions.

But for those jockeys who have had to make way for a superior force, there is nothing but a feeling of isolation that compares to that of a footballer who has played in every World Cup game only to find himself on the substitutes' bench for the final.

Niall ?Slippers' Madden is one of the most talked-about pilots on the Irish scene but he knows from experience what it is like to sit and suffer on the sidelines while another man basks in the kudos.

No-one knows the Martin Brassil-trained Numbersixvalverde better than Madden, but when Walsh became available to ride him in the Irish National last year, the 20-year-old was forced to recite a familiar script.

Numbersixvalverde registered a three-quarters-of-a-length victory over Jack High, Brassil fulfilled a lifelong ambition, and Walsh beamed down at the throng of punters at Fairyhouse as they greeted him into the winner's enclosure with all the rapture they would afford a demigod.

But at Aintree on April 8, things will be different.

Walsh will be riding last year's winner Hedgehunter in the John Smith's Grand National and Brassil will put his faith in the jockey who has served him so well during their two-year association.

And if ever an opportunity presented itself for a rider to underscore his ability, successfully navigating the pulse-racing Aintree fences is surely it.

'It is frustrating when Ruby rides him instead of me, but that's racing and it makes you hungrier and work harder,' said Naas-born Madden, who won the Irish amateurs' title with 44 winners last term.

'To tell you the truth, I didn't want Hedgehunter to run in the Gold Cup just in case something happened to him and Ruby would end up riding Numbersix.

'But thankfully he's okay and I'm determined to make the most of it at Aintree.

'Ruby is God and I wish him well in the National, but this is what I've dreamt about since watching the race as a kid ? just to be involved is a pleasure.'

It will also be a pleasure to see such a vibrant tyro like Madden chancing his arm against the household names in the world's biggest horse-race.

Having learned his trade with Noel Meade, Madden has progressed as both a person and a rider this term, having upped sticks to Navan from his childhood home in Naas.

And although Meade remains one of the biggest influences in shaping his career, the rider acknowledges that his father, also Niall, provided the fulcrum without which he would have quickly derailed into the congested quicksand of obscurity.

'He's just been everything to me,' Madden junior said of his father, who is now a highly-respected handler in Naas.

'Every day after I'd been riding we'd go through where I went wrong and right, and it was his guidance that has got me where I am today, for sure.'

Formerly a jockey ? he finished fifth aboard Mouse Morris's Attitude Adjuster in the 1988 Grand National ? Madden senior is also responsible for his son being branded with the affectionate nickname of ?Slippers'.

'When Dad was about 17 working at Edward O'Grady's yard, the only pair of boots they had for him were far too big and he used to make such a noise people would here him coming from miles away,' said Madden.

'Because of that, everyone used to call him ?Boots', so ?Slippers' just seemed to be appropriate for me after that.

'My younger brother, Tom, is slowly getting into racing and the plan will be to call him ?Socks',' he laughed.

With such an obscure nickname, it is perhaps fitting that ?Slippers' partners the equally off-kilter Numbersixvalverde, who is named after the address of owner Bernard Carroll's holiday home in Portugal.

Brassil's charge would therefore appear to fit the bill for pinstickers out there who make their Grand National selections solely on a likeable name.

However, to discount Numbersixvalverde's genuine National credentials would be as dangerous a pastime as plane-spotting in an air raid.

Having won the three-mile-five-furlong Irish National last March, the gelding has progressed nicely over fences and finished an impressive fourth behind What A Native in the Pierse Leopardstown Handicap Chase in January.

His last two outings over timber at Punchestown and Naas also left a favourable residue that he had the right profile to run with credit in the National for his shrewd connections.

'The first horse I rode for Martin was Numbersix and I soon found out that he's one of the most underrated trainers you'd come across,' insisted Madden.

'He'll always have them ready for the big races and you can guarantee that'll be the case at Liverpool.

'Numbersix stays all day, acts on any going and jumps well, touch wood, so he has to have a chance of winning.

'It will change my career forever if I was to win the National and I wouldn't want to be on anyone else apart from my fellow.'

Should Numbersixvalverde stride past the winning post in front on the big day, ?Slippers' is a shoo-in never to have to play deputy to anyone, not even Walsh,

By Chris Wilson/PA

(C) PA Sport