Sam Waley-Cohen enjoyed a dream final ride as Matt Brocklebank's 50/1 Value Bet tip Noble Yeats won the Randox Grand National.
Earlier in the week the winning rider revealed he would retire after this ride and he was always travelling strongly in a dramatic race.
He was briefly headed by 15/2 favourite Any Second Now jumping the last but rallied strongly and was back in front by The Elbow.
From there Emmett Mullins' seven-year-old wasn't going to be denied, staying on strongly to score by two-and-a-quarter lengths.
Delta Work (10/1), Santini (33/1) and Fiddlerontheroof (12/1) all hit the frame but the front two dominated this from some way out.
The stunning 50/1 success for the Value Bet column capped a great week for the Sporting Life tipping team at Aintree - full details of which can be found here.
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Randox Grand National result
1st Noble Yeats 50/1
2nd Any Second Now 15/2
3rd Delta Work 10/1
4th Santini 33/1
5th Fiddlerontheroof 12/1
Retiring jockey signs off with sensational high
A jubilant Waley-Cohen – who won the Cheltenham Gold Cup with Long Run in 2011 – said: “He ran for me, he couldn’t go the early pace and I just tried to find pockets to give him a bit of space to run into. I found myself on the inner and was going more forward than I wanted to.
“He loves seeing his fences, so I kept trying to find a spot where he could see them. When I asked him he came, but if I just half-asked him he wasn’t confident, so I was trying to sit against him – he likes the bit in his mouth and your legs against him.
“I was just trying to get him in that nice rhythm and as soon as I asked him, he went. I thought I’d gone too early (at the last). I really didn’t want to get there then, but as soon as he picked up I thought ‘he’s gone, he’s got this’.
“Dad has always supported me unwaveringly, we’ve never had a cross word, it’s always been for fun. It’s been a love affair. To my wife, long-suffering, they aren’t all good days, there are bad days in this sport. We came here thinking the sun’s out, it’s your last ride – go and have a nice spin, no expectations. Just enjoy it. It’s a dream. I couldn’t believe it.
“I have to thank so many people. People said he was too young at seven, but when you’re on a horse that age you can take chances and it paid off. He jumped neatly and I started to think he was really travelling, I started following Santini and then he just started to go forwards.
“He jumped the last well, but then I felt the other horse come to me and I thought he was going to get me. But when I really asked him he kept finding and galloped all the way to the line.
“I was overwhelmed when I crossed the line, but then you have a responsibility to the horse so I had to keep him walking and get some water on him and make sure he was fine. As a jockey your race isn’t run until your horse is safe so that was my main thought – then get weighed in and go and enjoy it!
“Every day you win a race for your family is an amazing day, it doesn’t matter if it’s a point-to-point or the Grand National. People might say ‘yeah, whatever’ to that but it’s true, it’s a family day out and I’m overjoyed to win.
“That’s definitely it now, I’m done. I always knew when I had second thoughts about getting out of bed to go and ride one it would be time to call it a day and I couldn’t think of anywhere better to go out than this. The reason I kept coming back here year after year is to have a feeling like that.”
'It makes you cry'
Robert Waley-Cohen was beaming with pride as he said: “I think you have to quote Shakespeare and say ‘my cup runneth over’. It makes you cry. I was shouting so hard. What could be more wonderful, we’ve had so many wonderful happy days together. He’s won big races from the Gold Cup to two King Georges and a lot of handicaps like the Whitbread, the Topham and the Becher – he’s the man over these fences, he’s extraordinary. If you could bottle it you would.
“He said his proudest moment ever in race was when he lined up at the start here and said to AP McCoy ‘what are you going to do over these fences’ and AP said ‘I’m going to watch what you do’. He said that was his best moment in racing. He’s the only the amateur to have won the Gold Cup, the King George twice and the Grand National. It’s so extraordinary.”
The winning trainer – who is the nephew of champion trainer Willie Mullins – said: “Today was the plan, and it’s nice when a plan comes together. I didn’t get to see much of him early doors, but going away from the stands I had to take a breath and I said ‘this is a winner’s position’. It was the perfect spot on that second circuit. That last circuit, everything just seemed to fall into place. I would say I’m understandably shell-shocked!
"We were probably more confident a month ago but the closer we got to it everyone else kept talking up their chances and we just went cold but the horse never knew any different. It was our form behind Ahoy Senor, a Grade One winner yesterday, that made us confident as the form was franked and the form was all there."
Seventh heaven for Value Bet followers
There hadn't been a seven-year-old winner since World War II, but Value Bet readers were encouraged to take a chance on 'a progressive, young novice on a good-looking mark (147) who seems likely to relish a first crack at Saturday’s marathon distance.'
It capped a fine week for our team, with Ben Linfoot bagging the winner of the big race on day one and Simon Holt putting up The Last Day at 14/1, a selection who pipped another big-priced Value Bet selection on Thursday.
Francky Du Berlais (30/1) also placed for readers of Matt's column, which is published on Friday evening and ahead of all major UK racing festivals.