Welsh National: Mountainous wins in thrilling finish at Chepstow
- Published
Mountainous beat Hawkes Point and crowd favourite Tidal Bay in a tight three-way finish to win the Welsh National.
The 20-1 shot, ridden by Paul Moloney and trained by Herefordshire's Richard Lee, held off the challenges of 14-1 shot Hawkes Point and 12-year-old Tidal Bay, who went off at 10-1.
Highland Lodge, the 13-2 favourite, led for the majority of the race but faded on Chepstow's heavy ground.
One in a Milan (50-1) was fourth, while Merry King was fifth (9-1).
Mountainous battled on bravely in the hands of Moloney to give Lee his second Welsh National success in three years after Le Beau Bai in 2011.
The winner's stablemate Knock A Hand set the pace with Highland Lodge before the more than three-and-a-half-mile marathon began in earnest over the final five fences.
"I couldn't believe how well he was going. Paul gave him an intelligent ride and got a breather into him. I was also delighted with the way my other horse, Knock A Hand, ran," Lee told Channel Four Racing.
"Mountainous has always been a nice horse. From the moment he came into our yard as a five-year-old, I said he was a Welsh National horse."
Mountainous did not have it his own way going over the last two fences as the Paul Nicholls-trained Tidal Bay - who won Sandown's bet365 Gold Cup in 2012 and proved he could mix it with the best when he won the Lexus Chase at Leopardstown last Christmas - came up the outside to force a late charge.
Going over the last it was Hawkes Bay who led, but one final push from Moloney saw Mountainous cross the line a head clear.
The winning horse's owner James Potter said: "I'm chuffed to bits, we're Welsh and it's brilliant to win the Welsh Grand National. It's an unbelievable day for us.
"Just the stamina he has, it's just been a brilliant day. I'm absolutely speechless."
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