VENETIA WILLIAMS yesterday spoke of her pride at Mon Mome’s John Smith’s Grand National success, but played down the significance of becoming only the second woman to train the winner of the Aintree showpiece.
Yesterday back at Williams’ stables in Herefordshire 300 or so people were gathered for a welcome home party for the returning Aintree heroes.
Under Liam Treadwell Mon Mome landed the Grand National by 12 lengths on Saturday. At odds of 100-1, the nine-year-old became the joint biggest-priced winner of the race matching Foinavon’s similarly priced success in 1967.
With just two hours sleep, Williams hosted the get together as she started to come to terms with following in the footsteps of the only previous female winner Jenny Pitman.
The trainer said: “It makes me feel proud to win the Grand National, but I am not sure the male and female thing is so much of an issue if you are training them rather than riding them.
“We would all love to train Gold Cup winners and Grade One winners at the Cheltenham Festival, but the Grand National is the race which is known the world over so we are absolutely ecstatic.
“I got back about 9pm from Aintree and we all went down to the pub where all the staff were.
“I had a great time there and went on to some great friends afterwards.
“It was quite late, or should I say early this morning, when I got to bed. I managed a couple of hours sleep but I have never got up so unnecessarily early on a Sunday morning!
“Shirley, Martin and Sarah in my office were on the phone to all the owners and friends we could think of seconds after Mon Mome passed the post to tell them about the party.
“I even think Shirley even went into the local village and was knocking on the doors of people who didn’t even know the Grand National was on to tell them to come to the party.
“The local village are great with us. They have to put up with us taking horses round the roads when they are trying to get to work and take the kids to school, so it is great to thank them for the patience they show us.”
