Grand National: Top five winners this century

5. MON MOME (2009) rated 159

Mon Mome may have been one of the best Grand National winners of recent years but that’s unlikely to be how he’ll be best remembered in years to come. It’s his starting price of 100/1 that’s earned him a lasting place in Aintree history. Mon Mome was just the fifth winner to be successful at the sort of odds more readily associated with no-hopers or ‘freak’ winners such as Foinavon who’d avoided the infamous pile-up of 1967 and been the last to prevail at such odds. Mon Mome had finished tenth in the Grand National the year before, but his record in staying chases in past seasons included a second at the Cheltenham Festival and in a Welsh National. He started favourite for the latter race just months before the 2009 National but four defeats in the run-up to Aintree, including a last-place finish in the Midlands National weeks beforehand, made Mon Mome a rank outsider when beating the previous year’s winner Comply Or Die by twelve lengths. It wasn’t the last time in his career that Mon Mome outran huge odds – he finished third at 50/1 in the following season’s Cheltenham Gold Cup, underlining that he was a very smart chaser on his day – but he failed to complete in two further attempts at the National.

4. BALLABRIGGS (2011) rated 159

Ginger McCain added a fourth National win to his cv when Amberleigh House was successful in 2004 three decades after the exploits of Red Rum whose three victories ensured his trainer will always be synonymous with Aintree. McCain senior lived just long enough to see his son Donald saddle a National winner of his own five years after taking over the licence from his father when Ballabriggs – like Mon Mome two years earlier – carried 11-0 to victory in 2011. Ballabriggs had won his last three chases the previous season, culminating in a Cheltenham Festival victory in the Kim Muir for amateur riders, and had been ante-post favourite for the 2011 National for much of the winter, having his last run before Aintree when second at Kelso. The combination of a sound pace and drying ground on an unseasonably warm day contributed to  Ballabriggs recording one of the fastest times in National history. Ballabriggs had two attempts at becoming the first since Red Rum to win the National more than once, giving a good account when sixth to Neptune Collonges under 11-9 in 2012.

3. DON’T PUSH IT (2010) rated 162

‘At least I can think I have sort of done all right as a jockey now.’ After fourteen unsuccessful attempts, Tony McCoy finally added his name to the list of Grand National-winning jockeys when Don’t Push It gave him what proved to be the only win of his career in the race in 2010. Don’t Push It is also the last market leader to win a National (the champion jockey’s popularity with punters resulted in a public gamble on the day which ensured he started joint-favourite), while what was the most high-profile victory among McCoy’s thousands of winners helped him win the BBC Sports Personality of the Year that year. In the circumstances, the merit of Don’t Push It’s performance was rather underestimated, but it took a high-class effort for him to win carrying 11-5, the most weight since Grittar had the same burden in 1982. Carrying top weight a year later, when again ridden by McCoy, Don’t Push It ran a game third behind Ballabriggs.

2. NEPTUNE COLLONGES (2012) rated 166

Don’t Push It’s owner and trainer J P McManus and Jonjo O’Neill went agonisingly close to a second win in three years when Sunnyhillboy was beaten a nose in the closest finish to a Grand National in the race’s history. The eleven-year-old winner, though, Neptune Collonges, deserved jump racing’s biggest prize after spending much of his career in the shadow of his outstanding stablemates Kauto Star and Denman. Neptune Collonges ran in four consecutive Cheltenham Gold Cups, completing a one-two-three for Paul Nicholls’ stable when third to Denman and Kauto Star in 2008 and then finishing fourth a year later when Kauto Star won his second Gold Cup. Having rubbed shoulders with Gold Cup winners, Neptune Collonges goes down as one of the best National winners of the post Red Rum-era, carrying 11-6 and conceding more than a stone to the previous month’s Kim Muir winner Sunnyhillboy. The first grey to win the National since Nicolaus Silver in 1961, Neptune Collonges was retired straight after the race, though his trainer, and owner John Hales, are set to be represented for the second year running in this year’s race by Unioniste, he too a grey son of the French sire Dom Alco.

1. MANY CLOUDS (2015) rated 168

It wasn’t long before the Grand National had another Gold Cup-standard winner. In fact, 2015 hero Many Clouds had contested the Gold Cup four weeks earlier as one of the joint second-favourites for the race though ran below form in sixth behind Coneygree. However, he bounced back at Aintree under 11-9, the most weight carried to victory since Red Rum won his second National under what was then top weight of 12-0. A 25/1 chance after his below-par run at Cheltenham last year, Many Clouds is set to start favourite under top weight this year in his bid to become the first horse since Red Rum to be successful more than once. Many Clouds goes to Aintree this year on the back of an impressive win at Kelso in the same race that Ballabriggs contested prior to his National win in 2011. Many Clouds was a third National winner for his owner Trevor Hemmings after Ballabriggs and the 2005 winner Hedgehunter who, incidentally, just fails to make this list. Hedgehunter was the first of this century’s half-dozen National winners to carry eleven stone or more to victory and ran a magnificent race in defeat twelve months later when runner-up to Numbersixvalverde under 11-12.

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