WITH two fences to go in the John Smith’s Grand National Keith Mercer was starting to believe of a possible home win. In the end, though, it was a Mon Mome win.
But the Merseyside jockey was delighted to grab fifth place aboard another big outsider like the Venetia Williams-trained winner, in Paul Murphy’s 100-1 chance Cerium.
Mercer was having his third ride in the Aintree showpiece and was delighted to finally complete after falls aboard Haut de Gamme at the 20th fence three years ago and then last year when Contraband came down at the 11th.
The 27-year-old, who was brought up not far from the course in Altcar, gave the Paul Murphy-trained Cerium a superb ride to bely the eight-year-old’s early morning odds of 500-1.
As a youngster Mercer’s first experience of Aintree was when he watched another outsider 40-1 chance Royal Athlete triumph in 1995.
And although he wasn’t on another winning outsider, speaking to Daily Post after the race Mercer took great delight in his efforts around Aintree.
A winner on the final race of last year’s Grand National meeting, Mercer was happy again. He said: “It was brilliant. Going out I was desperate to get round. I would like to say that I got round in the National – now I can – and anything else would have been a bonus.”
After a slight error at the third fence Mercer then had the dream ride he hoped for. Travelling and jumping well, Cerium was among the 10 to 15 horses who seemed to have a serious chance of becoming the 2009 National hero crossing the Melling Road en route to the final few fences.
