Liberty Counsel digs deep to land Irish Grand National

Liberty Counsel's shock 50 to 1 victory in yesterday's Ladbrokes Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse was a skinning result for the bookies but a fairytale for trainer Dot Love that could have come straight from Hans Christian Andersen.

Love may never rank with Denmark’s most famous writer in terms of global profile but the woman born and bred outside Copenhagen now has a singular place to herself when it comes to Irish racing.

She's been in Ireland long enough too – over 40 years – to more than appreciate the significance of saddling the longest-priced winner in Irish National history that stunned the Easter Monday crowd and left Love, and 21-one-year old jockey Ben Dalton, celebrating the most notable win of their careers.

“She was foot-perfect: everything was perfect,” exclaimed Love, a former eventing star who was set to compete for her native country at the 1988 Seoul Olympics only to be denied the chance to compete due to a clerical error.

If that cured her of any belief in fairytales, yesterday’s result will have restored the faith.

Unconsidered in the betting on the back of a disappointing run at Cheltenham less than three weeks later, there must have been some in the huge holiday crowd that suspected an April 1st joke when Liberty Counsel swung into the final straight in the lead having left most of her 27 rivals gasping.

Dalton hadn't gone for everything on the 10-year-old mare either but after having left representatives from powerhouse operations such as JP McManus and Michael O'Leary's Gigginstown Stud in their wake, the natural pecking-order looked like being restored when Away We Go ranged up as Liberty Counsel's big danger.

Rare gap
Willie Mullins had never won the Irish National before but that rare gap in the champion trainer's big-race CV looked like being filled for much of the straight as Paul Townend sat comfortably on Away We Go.

However, Dalton and Liberty Counsel were anything but cowed and at the last it came down to a slogging match in which the mare always looked to hold a slight edge. At the line there was only half a length in it, but the gap was decisive.

“The ground improving was a big help to her and she travelled and jumped great,” reported Dalton, originally from New Ross in Co Wexford, who reckoned yesterday’s success was the 45th of his fledgling career. “I saw Paul coming but I knew my horse would keep going. She’s a really honest mare.”

Six of the last 10 Irish National winners have started at 20 to 1 or more but Liberty Counsel’s SP trumped the lot.

"I'm shocked. I thought today if everything went well we might get fourth or fifth and I would have been thrilled with that. But this is unbelievable," said Love who was eager to pass much of the credit to her assistant Ciarán Murphy, brother of Irish Olympic rider, Joseph Murphy.

Both have eventing experience but significantly also are familiar with having talented racehorses through their hands. Love handles the pre-training of Michael O’Leary’s young Gigginstown Stud horses at her base near Mullingar and also handles another smart mare in Shadow Eile, placed behind Quevega at last month’s Cheltenham Festival.

“These two mares have kept us on the map,” Love said. “We took Liberty Counsel to Cheltenham as well but the ground there was too tacky. Once the going improved here, I thought she would run well.”

Liberty Counsel wound up running better than anyone and scooped a €141,000 first-prize that many punters felt was destined for the big guns like JP McManus and Gigginstown.