McCoy jinx is hard to take

Triumph: Ruby Walsh on Hedgehunter

Look back on any great sporting event and it's usually possible to identify one pivotal moment. In Saturday's Grand National it came as the field thundered down to Becher's Brook for the second time.

And what happened within the space of a couple of seconds there had massive consequences for two outstanding riders and millions of punters who had placed their faith in them.

After nine National defeats, AP McCoy must have thought he had finally had found a partner with a hunger for Aintree glory to match his own as the free-wheeling Clan Royal devoured the daunting spruce fences in spectacular fashion.

Meanwhile, Ruby Walsh made a subtle move aboard Hedgehunter which was barely mentioned in the post-race analysis but arguably made the difference between defeat and victory.

Anxious not to let Hedgehunter take the sort of hold which had left him with precious little left to offer in the home straight 12 month earlier, Walsh took such a fierce grip on the gelding's head that he briefly looked in danger of making an embarrassing exit through the side door.

The extra second that instinctive decision bought him ensured that Hedgehunter had enough room to avoid the mayhem caused when two loose horses formed an equine shield to carry Clan Royal and McCoy out of the race.

Walsh admitted that he came within an ace of suffering the same fate as his great rival as he reflected on his passage through a race which was watched by an estimated 600m people worldwide.

"That incident at Becher's frightened the heart out of me," he said.

"AP was desperately unlucky, but that's the National. It doesn't matter who you are, if you're not on the right horse you might as well be in the weighing room. Fortunately, I had the right horse and it's a magical feeling." Those who have beaten cancer tend to live their lives with a sense of perspective others can never possess, so it wasn't surprising to see Clan Royal's trainer Jonjo O'Neill accept the reverse with a smile and a "worse things happen and we'll be back next year."

But McCoy lacks the life experience and the easy nature of his boss, and the shot of him sitting alone and inconsolable in the jockeys' room with his head in his hands as the Hedgehunter team prepared to party remains one of the abiding images of the entire day.

"It's the biggest race in the world and I was distraught," he said.

"Clan Royal was jumping brilliantly when he got taken out. We're all desperate to win the National, and when you get a horse who loves Aintree like he does you wonder whether you will ever get as good a chance again.

"Of course, if Jonjo can get him there next season, it will be a great ride to look forward to."

Bookies trade in logic rather than raw emotion and, with 10 National defeats behind him and his 31st birthday fast approaching, the cold hearts at Ladbrokes and Totesport now make the most successful jump jockey of all time odds-on never to land the world's most famous steeplechase.

Jonjo never won the race. Nor did great riders like John Francome and Peter Scudamore, and after Saturday's trauma McCoy can only look forward to the 2006 National, which will take place without the distraction of a royal wedding on a track which will now undergo a £30m redevelopment.

Even with Camilla in the fold, no-one knows what the future holds for the royal clan.

Sadly for McCoy, no-one will ever know what would have happened to Clan Royal had those loose horses not intervened.

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