Silver turns to Gold in National
Saturday, 14 April 2007Irish raider Silver Birch caused a minor surprise as he claimed the John Smith's Grand National at Aintree.
Trained by Gordon Elliott and ridden by Robbie Power, the 10-year-old jumped to the front at the second-last.
He stayed on well after The Elbow to hold the late thrust of McKelvey, with Slim Pickings in third and Philson Run fourth.
Silver Birch won the Welsh Grand National in 2004 when trained by Paul Nicholls and had been ante-post favourite for the 2005 renewal of the Aintree spectacular before injury denied him his chance of glory.
However, he made amends for new connections in spectacular style as a 33-1 chance, travelling well throughout as Bewleys Berry, Naunton Brook and Ballycassidy cut out the early running.
McKelvey (12-1) gave his all after the last, but despite a fine ride from Tom O'Brien he failed by three-quarters of a length, with Slim Pickings (33-1) a further length and a quarter away and Philson Run producing a huge effort for a 100-1 shot.
Power told BBC Sport: 'Unbelievable. What a ride I got the whole way round. He jumped and travelled great.
'Gordon was worried he wouldn't be able to lay-up early on, but it meant I was able to keep out of trouble. Fair play to Gordon, he has done a top job.
'He jumped out great and I had a look around before we got to the straight and I could see Barry (Geraghty on Slim Pickings) was travelling as well as anything else.
'Once I got to the front he did nothing. Gordon picked him up for nothing (20,000 guineas) and he looks a bargain now.'
