Derby hero plays second fiddle to Silver Birch

RACING:Silver Birch lapped up the plaudits for his spectacular Aintree Grand National success yesterday when the winner of the world's most famous steeplechase paraded at the headquarters of Irish flat racing, the Curragh.

The reigning Irish Derby hero, Dylan Thomas, might have been having the first start of his four-year-old career but he still had to play second fiddle to Ireland's latest hero who on Saturday completed just the third Irish-trained hat-trick of Grand National victories.

The first of those three Irish successes in a row came in 1879-1881 while the other was Vincent O'Brien's matchless achievement in saddling three-in-a-row with three different horses in 1953-'55. In its own way, however, Silver Birch's surprise 33 to 1 win can rank with any of the past.

It certainly comes into the fairytale category for Silver Birch's 29-year-old trainer Gordon Elliot who took out his licence only last year and who has yet to train a winner in Ireland. Much the same can be said for the 25-year-old jockey, Robbie Power, son of the triple Aga Khan-winning showjumper Con Power who was having just his second Grand National ride.

He galvanised the ex-Paul Nicholls-trained horse to a three-quarter length success over McKelvey with Slim Pickings, another 33 to 1 Irish runner, finishing third under Barry Geraghty.

"You can't get better than this. I should retire now," exclaimed Power, a former European junior showjumping silver medallist. "This is better than the sex Mick Fitzgerald talked about when he won!"

Yesterday, Elliot issued a clean bill of health for the sixth Irish-trained winner of the Grand National in the last nine years. "He's fine, in good order, and he ate up this morning. He has got a few scratches but nothing serious," said the former amateur jockey who rents a stable yard near Trim in Co Meath and who was the youngest trainer in Saturday's National.

"It is just beginning to sink in but I still can't really believe it. Hopefully this will put the yard on the map and give us a bit of a kick-start. After we bought him last year, we just tried to keep him sweet and it seems to have worked," Elliot added.

A possible return to Aintree next year is on Silver Birch's agenda and the same applies to Slim Pickings who so nearly gave his trainer, Tom Taaffe, a National success to go alongside the two picked up by his father Pat Taaffe.

"I haven't got as big a buzz out of a race in a long time," said the trainer who had to watch on TV at home due to a travel mix-up. "The horse has come out fine and the aim is to go back next year. Mind you he might fall at the first. But one thing I can say is that he won't be that price next year."

That may be the case but he's unlikely to be as short as the price on an unprecedented Irish four-in-a-row in 2008.