FINAL PIECE

Here is the final piece with all nine Grand National winning horses (2006 - 2014) together in a grid for easy comparison:

'How to Win the Grand National'

By Claire Taylor

Here are the final nine pieces I have drawn ready for my final piece (pencil drawing with digital painting overlay)

I went to my local yard to ride a thoroughbred horse so I could get a first hand idea of their size and build, and their temperament:

I have done a bit more research into horse anatomy and did some quick sketches on photoshop which show two of the most prominent muscles on a horses body - the chest and the top of the leg.

CHEST:

LEG:

I also had some of the final piece horses i had already finished printed out so I could see what they looked like away from the computer screen. I kept their white backgrounds at this point so it would be easier to see if the colours/contrast had come out as I had hoped.

I could also use this A2 print out as an example of my work when I am at an equine event with my trade stand for my sideline business of drawing people horses and dogs.

RESULTS!

Unfortunately, both Tidal Bay (1) and Triolo D'alane (4) were brought down by another horses, so I was unable to see how much their conformation would have influenced their run.

However

My first choice horse, Balthazar King (9) finished second out of 40 runners, which shows that picking a horse based purely on their conformation really can work.

THE BIG DAY HAS ARRIVED

*THE CRABBIES GRAND NATIONAL 2014* 

I'd better get my bets on...

Time to see if my research has paid off. Based almost entirely on what the horse looks like, and not focusing their form, the three horses I have picked for the big race are:

(9) BALTHAZAR KING

(1) TIDAL BAY

(4) TRIOLO D'ALENE

All three horses are relatively similar in their conformation, two being bay and one chestnut. Not to big, not to small. Not to compact, not too rangey. They all look as though they are powerful enough to take on the worlds toughest steeplechase without the risk of tiring from carrying too much weighty muscle.

Even if they do not win, I would love it if they all finished or were at least not brought down by other fallers. This would mean that my way of choosing a Grand National winner, based on the horses conformation and not form, could become a valid method for picking a winner for future races.

Wish me luck!

I have experimented with changing the background of one of my horse drawings as I think it might look better than a plain white background.

My illustrations from my book 'Horse Anatomy and Common Ailments' have helped with my investigations in to the anatomy and inner working of the horse. Here are some of my anatomical drawings from that project:

Bones:

 Muscles:

I went to both the Natural History Museum in London, and the one in Oxford. The one in London has a full size taxidermy horse so I could study the horses structure from the outside, and the one in oxford has a full size skeleton of a horse so I could study the bone structure. This tied in with my research on Gillian Higgins and the Channel 4 programme 'Inside Natures Giants: Racehorse'.

Newbury Racecourse has put together its own guide to a race day, including tips for betting on horses:

NEWBURY GUIDE TO THE RACES PDF

I printed out and traced the fonts I was looking at for using as a title on my final piece. I then painted them with gold ink. I chose gold because it was one of the two colours (along with turf-green) which was the most common in the world of horse racing:

My favourite font in the gold colour is the second one down (Birds of Paradise). It looks traditional, and therefore ties in with the world of racing. It also looks quite similar the William Hill (one of the biggest horse race betting companies in the UK) font which they use in their logo:

HOWEVER

I am still undecided as to whether I use such as elaborate font, as every year, immediately after the Grand National has finished and the winner weighed in and confirmed, the horses name is added to the official list of winners on display at the Aintree Racecourse. The font used for this is a non-italic sans-serif font, hand painted in gold:

When I had my biggest win at Newbury, it was on a horse called Shangani. I followed my own guide when picking the horse, which obviously proved successful:

The horses previous race history: The horse had taken part in similar races (distance and fences) before, and was slowly improving with each race.

The grade/class: The grade was the same as the previous three races he had done well in.

The ground: The ground was heavy, and this horse had performed well on soft/heavy ground in the past.

The trainer: The trainer was Venetia Williams, who is a soft/heavy ground specialist and is really on form at the moment. One of her other horses had already won earlier in the day.

The jockey: The jockey (Tom Scudamore, who is very experienced) had been asked specially to ride this particular horse on this particular day in this particular race.

The weights: The horse was similar in the weights to how he had been at previous meetings where he had been steadily improving.

The track: This horse was a Newbury track specialist, meaning that Newbury is his favourite course and he tends to do well there.

The odds: He was second favourite all day, until he was seen in the parade ring, and another of Venetia Williams horses had already won, at which point he became favourite.

Other factors: The horse was a good age, looked calm/fit/well in the parade ring, was experienced over these types of jumps, hadn't had too much time off after his previous race and wasn't sporting any new headgear.

PaddyPower have sent me their 2014 guide to the Cheltenham Festival through the post. It gives information about every race and tips based on previous winner's form:

On Saturday 1st March I went to the Newbury Races. I put a few bets on, following my own tips I wrote a few posts ago, and ended up breaking even. I may not have made any money, but at least I beat the bookies!

Racecard and ticket:

A winning ticket:

So, it turns out that the company logos have absolutely nothing in common! Well, you wouldn't want to be confused with your nearest rival, would you?

Below are some of the fonts That I think would look good as the title for my final piece. I will print and trace them, and then paint them with gold ink, which is what I plan to do for the title on my final piece.

Here are some of the logos of the most popular horse race betting companies. I am interested in any themes occurring within colours and fonts.