Grand National: Neptune Collonges edges to victory over Sunnyhillboy in truly thrilling race

THERE are 285,120 inches to be covered in the John Smith’s Grand National and at the end of yesterday’s thrilling renewal of the world’s most famous race, less than three of those inches separated the winner, Neptune Collonges, from the runner-up Sunnyhillboy.

It was the closest finish in the history of the race, the distance officially a nose, which also saw a historic event for the distaff side – a woman rider, Katie Walsh, became the first of her gender to ride a horse that finished in the places, Seabass trained by her father Ted going off as 8-1 joint favourite and coming in third.

Trained by six-time champion trainer Paul Nicholls and ridden by Daryl Jacob, both winning their first Nationals after many years in the game, 33-1 shot Neptune Collonges showed supreme courage to battle home and snatch victory on the line from 16-1 chance Sunnyhillboy, the mount of Richie McLernon that is trained by Jonjo O’Neill.

The victors will be in the record books as National winners forever, with Neptune Collonges the first grey to win the race since Nicolaus Silver in 1961. But unless they can win the great race in the future, who will remember Sunnyhillboy and McLernon? That is the cruelty of the photo-finish decided now by a couple of pixels on a computer screen.

Far, far more cruel, however, especially for O’Neill and owner JP McManus, was the loss of their Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Synchronised, killed in a fall at Becher’s Brook on the first circuit. According To Pete, ridden by Harry Haynes, trained by Malcolm Jefferson and owned by Yorkshire businessman Peter Nelson, was also killed after being brought down at Becher’s on the second circuit.

There was real drama even before the race when Synchronised got overly stirred up and threw champion jockey Tony McCoy on to the turf. A photographer eventually caught the loose horse who was reunited with McCoy and allowed to start after being checked over. The Cheltenham Gold Cup winner never settled, and his race, and his life, ended with the fall at Becher’s Brook.

Two false starts did not help matters, and when they eventually started, Viking Blond’s supporters knew their fate at the first fence where he fell. The fancied West End Rocker and Junior both came down at the second, before the fence before Becher’s, the Brook itself and the Canal Turn accounted for eight of the field.

Up front, Nicky Henderson’s Shalakakboomboom was going well under Barry Geraghty while outsiders State of Play and Planet of Sound did their bit to take the field along.

On the second circuit, Seabass was going noticeably well for Katie Walsh, while last year’s winner Ballabriggs came forward and stayed on to eventually finished sixth.

Over the last, Seabass and Sunnyhillboy took the lead, the latter forging on, but rounding the Elbow, Jacob conjured a great run out of Neptune Collonges and his nod on the line gained him the greatest and last win of his career. Cappa Bleu battled bravely for fourth while In Compliance ran on to finish fifth at 100-1.

Triumphant Jacob has had to spend a year as understudy, filling in for Nicholls’ stable jockey Ruby Walsh but riding some good winners himself. He said: “You can’t beat this. I was on a tough horse and I said to Paul that one day I would ride you a National winner. That was two years ago and now I’ve done it.”

Paul Nicholls had sent out 52 previous entrants in the National, the best finish coming from Royal Auclair who was second in 2005. It was a slightly early but very welcome 50th birthday present for Nicholls, who will be reach his half-century on Tuesday and can anticipate being champion trainer again thanks to the huge National prize.

“He’s probably the best horse we’ve run in the race,” said Nicholls. “He’s got great form, he’s been placed in Gold Cups, he stays, he’s genuine and Daryl gave him a fantastic ride when you analyse where he went. It’s absolutely brilliant.”

Owner John Hales enjoyed his greatest moment in racing at the course where he suffered his most tragic equine loss with the death of the great chaser One Man, killed during a race in 1998. Clearly emotional in the winners’ circle, he retired Neptune Collonges on the spot.

“He’ll never race again, that’s it,” said Hales, who made his fortune as a toy manufacturer. “The highs and lows of this game are extreme. It split the family coming here. My wife was 50-50, my daughter couldn’t face it. She has gone show jumping and is overcome with emotion. We’ve nothing against Aintree. We love coming here and this year we’ve come up trumps.”

The victory of a horse which started life in France following Mon Mome’s win three years ago blows away the myth that French-breds cannot cope with the National distance. There’s also an end to the myth that a woman cannot shine in the National, as Katie Walsh looked all over a winner on Seabass until he faded on the run-in. Katie, whose brother Ruby missed the ride on His Own after a previous fall, said: “He gave me an unbelievable spin. I got it wrong a couple of times and he put me right but it’s just a fantastic experience. I want to go out and do it all over again.”

On a day of history and records, the bookies reported their biggest ever daily turnover due to massive betting on the National and the FA Cup semi-finals. Some experts said that as much as £300 million was punted and a lot of it stayed with the bookmakers thanks to Neptune Collonges being an outsider.

David Williams of Ladbrokes said: “The result could scarcely have been any better. Neptune Collonges slipped off most radars and most of the cheers at Aintree came from the bookies.”

The BBC bowed out of Aintree coverage yesterday with Clare Balding and her team doing a hugely professional job as always. Auntie Beeb has brought us National history over the decades, some of it tragic, but it is the triumphs of heroes such as Red Rum, Aldaniti and Bob Champion, Don’t Push It and Tony McCoy and now Neptune Collonges and Daryl Jacob which are in the BBC archives and our memories for ever.

Thanks, Auntie.