Mon home to fly-past celebration

John Smith's Grand National winner Mon Mome was led away from the garden and moments later Williams' great friend John Gordon roared overhead, dipping the Union Jack-emblazoned wings of his single-engined aeroplane to welcome home the winning connections of the Aintree spectacular.

"It is quite wonderful," Williams had said to the assembled crowd. "In two or three minutes a good friend of mine will do a low fly past, a loop-the-loop and a victory salute for us."

She added: "I would like to thank you all so much for coming, and this has been just a day in a lifetime for me, Liam (Treadwell) and everyone that works here. Days like this give me a chance to say thank you to everyone."

Williams, who became only the second woman to train a National winner, added: "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.

"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 in the morning, when I got to bed."

A boyhood dream turned into reality for Liam Treadwell on Saturday afternoon - but his romp aboard Mon Mome has yet to really hit home.

The jockey said: "When I got back to the weighing room AP McCoy was one of the first to come and congratulate me. He said I have managed to win the race at the first time of trying while he has failed 14 times. For him to take the time out to do that meant so much to me.

"I didn't go to the winner's party in Liverpool and my fiancee's mother drove me back down here as we had a few bottles of champagne in the weighing room," he explained.

"I got back to the yard about 8.30pm and wanted to come back to thank all of the staff in the yard. I then got home about 2am with some friends and we watched the re-run a few times. I'll probably go home and watch the replay again!"