By Donn McClean

ON THURSDAY, AMATEUR jockey Sam Waley-Cohen said that he would retire from race-riding on Saturday.  That, when he dismounted from Noble Yeats’ back after the Randox Grand National on that day – win, lose or draw – he would hang up his race-riding boots.

It was win.

The Grand National can throw up the most fantastic stories.  It is a race that often takes what works in fiction, and sees if it will work in reality. 

Perhaps there is a story waiting behind just about every Grand National contender, that it just doesn’t get told about 39 of the 40 horses.  But we had the framework for this story beforehand, and we knew when it would end, just before 5.30pm on Saturday, we just didn’t know how.  

If a novel ended like this, you would put the book down and say: nah, too fanciful, too far-fetched, too idyllic.  Roy of the Rovers goes racing.  And yet, it happened, because that’s what the Grand National does.

Even before yesterday, Sam Waley-Cohen’s record over the Grand National fences had been quite remarkable.  An amateur rider, and yet, no jockey currently riding had won more times over the big spruce fences than he had. 

The Fox Hunters’ on Katarino twice and on Warne once, the Topham Chase on Liberthine and Rajdhani Express, the Becher Chase on Oscar Time.  He had gone close in the Grand National before – second on Oscar Time in 2011 and fourth on the same Oscar Time in 2013 – and he had won the Gold Cup once and the King George twice on Long Run, but he had never won the Grand National.  Until today.

Noble Yeats on the way to victory in the National. PA PA

The Noble Yeats story has its roots in incredulity too.  He is a young horse, too young for the Grand National, according to the stats.  He is only seven and, before yesterday, no seven-year-old had won the Grand National since Bogskar won it in 1940. 

He only won his bumper in January 2021, and he won his maiden hurdle in March 2021. 

He didn’t have his first run over fences until last October, and six months later he wins the Grand National.

Actually, he didn’t qualify for the Grand National until two months ago. These days, you have to finish in the first four in a chase run over three miles or further before you are allowed to run in the Grand National, so Emmet Mullins took Noble Yeats to Wetherby in February for the Grade 2 Towton Chase. 

That is a novices’ chase that usually doesn’t attract many runners. This year, there were just four contenders, so Noble Yeats only had to jump a clear round in order to achieve his objective. 

As it happened, he put a big performance to finish second to Friday’s Mildmay Chase winner Ahoy Senor, but it was a typically clever piece of placing by the young trainer.

Emmet Mullins had never had a runner in the Grand National as a trainer before yesterday, but he has previous with the race.  

It was in 2005 that his mother wouldn’t allow him go to Aintree with Hedgehunter, who was trained by his dad’s brother Willie Mullins, and who won the National that year doing handsprings.  (And he reckoned that he could easily have gone, for all the study that was done.)

He rode in the race once, in 2009, he rode Chelsea Harbour for another uncle Tom Mullins. 

He didn’t get any further than the third fence in 2009, but the experience wasn’t lost on him. 

He remembers before the start, having a look at the first fence with his horse and hearing the crowds, feeling the atmosphere. He knew that he was part of something special.

He wasn’t just part of something special today, he was centre stage. Emmet Mullins has had big days in the past, as he has been quietly making his name as an astute racehorse trainer. 

Jockey Sam Waley-Cohen after winning. PA PA

Like when he took Cape Gentleman to Kempton in February last year and won the Grade 2 Dovecote Hurdle, like when he won the Paddy Power Plate at last year’s Cheltenham Festival with The Shunter.  But none of them were the Grand National.

It wasn’t all plain sailing either. Noble Yeats wasn’t quickly away, he was one of the last horses to jump the first fence, and he was towards the outside. 

Sam Waley-Cohen allowed him find his rhythm though, and he made gradual progress through the field and towards the inside so that, by the time they jumped The Chair and The Water and raced up past the stands with a full circuit to go, he was disputing sixth place and travelling well along the inside.

It was at that point that the trainer thought, we’re in a winner’s position now.

Noble Yeats got in tight to the fourth fence on the second circuit, and he nodded a little on landing over the fifth last fence, but he never lost that racing rhythm. 

His rider allowed him travel across the Anchorbridge Crossing and around the home turn, and he kept him on the bridle until after they had landed over the last fence and were challenged by Any Second Now and Mark Walsh. 

It was only then that Waley-Cohen asked his horse for his effort and, when he did, Noble Yeats responded. 

The Yeats gelding stretched his neck out willingly and stayed on strongly all the way to the line, where he was two and a quarter lengths in front of Any Second Now, who gave game chase, with the pair of them clear.

It was tough for Any Second Now’s connections, owner JP McManus and trainer Ted Walsh, third in the race last year, second this year, but at least both owner and trainer had had that National winning experience before. 

Also, Ted Walsh, whose Papillon was ridden to victory by his son Ruby in 2000, would have known exactly how Noble Yeats’ owner Robert Waley-Cohen was feeling, watching his son ride his horse to National victory.

Noble Yeats was only acquired by Robert Waley-Cohen in February, he raced just once in the owner’s colours before today. 

That was the genesis of a well thought-out plan, the beginnings of a remarkable story, a story which came to a fantastic conclusion at Aintree today.