Sam Waley-Cohen, who was riding in his final race before retirement, booted home 50-1 shot Noble Yeats (Ire) (Yeats {Ire}) to a 2 1/4-length victory in the G3 Randox Grant National. The amateur rider had announced his pending retirement on Thursday. Any Second Now (Ire) (Oscar {Ire}) was second after running third in 2021, 20 lengths ahead of Cheltenham winner Delta Work (Fr) (Network {Ger}).
“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,” said Waley-Cohen, who was riding in his father Robert's silks for trainer Emmet Mullins. “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.”
He added, “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!
Robert Waley-Cohen said, “He's the only the amateur to have won the Gold Cup, the King George twice and the Grand National. It's so extraordinary.”
Waley-Cohen was given a nine-day ban and a £400 fine by the stewards for overuse of the whip and in the incorrect place in the finish.
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