Don't Push it returns home to hero's welcome
THE morning after the afternoon before, and Don't Push It was nonchalantly strolling around in his field at the bottom of the Jackdaws Castle gallops.
Few would have been able to guess he had landed the world's greatest steeplechase, the Grand National, less than 24 hours earlier.
A couple of hundred yards away, at the Plough Inn at Ford, high in the Cotswolds above Cheltenham, a vast swathe of well-wishers, TV crews, photographers and journalists are patiently waiting for the equine hero to emerge.
Don't Push It's trainer, Jonjo O'Neill, also had to wait patiently - in his case for a Grand National victory.
"I have always wanted to win the race, andnow it has happened it is one of those dreams that you think will never come true, but for me it has and I could not feel more delighted," he said.
The only person on Sunday morning possibly feeling even more delighted was jockey Tony McCoy, for whom winning the world's greatest steeplechase had also until Saturday remained frustratingly elusive.
"After all those years of trundling out of the course following the disappointments of the likes of Clan Royal and Butler's Cabin, it is important to me I've finally won it, as it is a race where emotions run high in everyone," said McCoy, who on Saturday was as highly-charged inthe saddle as he has ever been.
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