Hedgehunter made up for last year's fall at the final jump to romp away from the field and win the ?700,000 (1.02 million euros) Grand National steeplechase on Saturday.
The 7-1 shot, which was leading until his fall a year ago, took advantage of a blunder by clear leader Clan Royal at Becher's Brook to charge ahead of the field and win the 7.2km race by 14 lengths.
Carrie Ford, aiming to be the first woman jockey to win the race in its 166-year history, held on to finish fifth on Forest Gunner, another leading contender. It tied the best finish for a woman jockey by 51-year-old Rosemary Henderson on her own horse, Fiddlers Pike, in 1994.
Ridden by Ruby Walsh, who won the race on Papillon five years ago, Hedgehunter cleared the last jump confidently after being challenged by a group of chasers who looked threatening.
With no more of the 30 fences to clear, he headed for "the elbow," the diagonal route to the finish line. He increased his speed in the long run to the line to finish well clear of 40-1 shot Royal Auclair, which was a length ahead of Simply Gifted.
"What happened at Becher's frightened the heart of me," Walsh said. "But he settled and settled. When Clan Royal got carried out I was left in front. I hadn't planned on being there.
"I thought to myself that, whatever happens, I wouldn't move until the elbow. When we got there, away he went, brilliant."
Of the 40 horses that started, 21 finished. Clan Royal, which finished second last year, was eight lengths ahead of the field when he reached Becher's the second time around having cleared 21 fences. But two rider-less horses got in his way as he approached the most difficult fence of the race, and the horse veered to the left and refused to jump.
For champion jockey Tony McCoy, who has been runner-up twice but never a winner in the most famous race in jumping, it was another disappointment.
Even though she didn't finish in the first four, Ford was delighted with her result.
In the buildup to the race, veteran trainer Ginger McCain, who saddled National great Red Rum to three victories as well as last year's winner Amberleigh House, had said Ford had no chance of winning because she was a woman.
Before the race, however, he presented her with a bouquet of flowers with the greeting "for the first woman to ride the winner of the National."
"It was brilliant to get round, and it was only at the last that we found out that he didn't stay," Ford said of Forest Gunner, which won the Fox Hunters Chase last year over the same National fences.
"But guts and determination saw him through to the end."
After Amberleigh house finished five places behind Ford's mount, McCain said he thought would have to eat his words.
"She scared me to death but gave him a brilliant ride," he said.
Some 70,000 fans were at Aintree and an estimated worldwide television audience of 600 million watched the race. Bookmakers said they took some ?250 million (365 million euros) in bets on the race.
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