House follows tradition

Racing Grand National report: The Aintree Grand National has always been something of a drama queen but as Amberleigh House waltzed past the winning post on Saturday it is a wonder he didn't do so to a sound track of Abba's greatest hits.

This is the race that gave us Aldaniti, Foinavon and any number of winning scripts that would have been thrown out of any soap opera as being too schmaltzy. But most of all it gave us Red Rum and the greatest Grand National legend of all.

Ginger McCain had tried 14 more times to win the world's most famous steeplechase since Red Rum completed his National treble in 1977.

But even racing's most famous ex-taxi driver admitted afterwards he never really believed he would get that fourth triumph which places him alongside the legendary Fred Rimell as the most successful National trainer of all.

"Fred Rimell was a great trainer. I'm just an ex-cabbie who's got lucky," the 73-year-old Liverpool local modestly stated.

But with McCain the Aintree factor remains as strong as when the famous old fences had all the pliability of a Sherman tank. It also applies to the horse he bought from Michael Hourigan for Ir£90,000 five years ago.

The fences remain hard enough to have allowed only 11 finishers from the 39 that started out, with nine exiting at Becher's on their first time around, and Amberleigh House's proven experience at the track counted for loads. So did the patience of his 28-year-old rider Graham Lee.

The Co Galway-born jockey exhibited the sort of patient confidence that had taken him to his best ever season already in allowing Amberleigh House creep back into the race when all had looked lost.

"The first circuit went pear-shaped," Lee admitted. "Plan A went out the window after three fences because of the loose horses and fallers. He jumped Becher's first time from a standstill. A lot of horses wouldn't have been able to do it."

The 2002 winner, Bindaree, couldn't, being brought down at Becher's along with What's Up Boys, while another co-favourite Jurancon only made it to the fourth fence.

Joss Naylor sulked his way to the 19th before pulling up and of the market leaders it was Clan Royal that proved the most durable.

Indeed with Amberleigh House and Lee taking their time out the back, much of the race was spent focusing on Clan Royal's relentless progress to the front where the Willie Mullins-trained Hedgehunter was putting in a spectacular round.

Always in the front rank, Hedgehunter had the lead to himself from the 10th and although he was always racing too keenly and looked beaten at the last, a final fence fall was a cruel reward for an exhilarating display.

By then the 40 to 1 outsider, Lord Atterbury, looked booked for a place as Clan Royal looked set to secure a famous victory for owner JP McManus.

Jockey Liam Cooper had lost his whip after a mistake at five out but what may have ultimately lost him the race was his wayward route from the last to the elbow.

Only a dramatic switch saved Clan Royal from ending up in the The Chair and by then Ambereligh House had arrived with the sort of perfectly-timed run that conjured up memories of Red Rum trumping of Crisp in the last strides of the 1973 race.

Red Rum was starting on the path to racing immortality that year but at 12, Amberleigh House is getting a little long in the tooth. Nevertheless, McCain didn't hesitate in committing his latest National star to an Aintree return next year.

"He's as bright as a cricket this morning. He's been out for a pick of grass and looks remarkably well," the trainer said yesterday. "The vets checked him after the race and they were impressed with how slow his heartbeat was."

Monty's Pass ran a blinder in fourth on ground just too soft to show how hard it is to win again but if there is any man who knows how to keep bringing them back it is McCain.

"I did think if I won again I might pack it in and retire," he said. "But bugger it. Fred Rimell trained four and I might be able to squeeze another one in yet!"

At Aintree, stranger things have definitely happened.