RACING: GRAND NATIONAL: THERE WAS a familial familiarity to Ballabriggs' success in Saturday's Aintree Grand National which corresponded to other déjà vu moments in the aftermath of the Donald McCain-trained winner's defeat of the Irish hope Oscar Time.

There was the inevitable focus on the two equine fatalities – the Willie Mullins-trained Dooneys Gate and Paul Nicholls’ Ornais – although their sad deaths resulted in a couple of fences being bypassed for the first time in the National’s long history.

There was also the less than edifying spectacle of Oscar Time being the only one of the first four home to make it back to the unsaddling enclosure. After their Herculean efforts over four-and-a-half miles in 20 degree heat, Ballabriggs and the 2010 winner Don’t Push It, who finished third, were among those having endless buckets of water thrown over them in the battle against dehydration before being led away directly to the stable block.

Those battles succeeded. Racing’s struggle against those who will take such images beamed out around the world as evidence that the National is cruel will take a lot longer and will probably never result in a definitive outcome either way.

What is certain, though, is that whatever the conditions, asking thoroughbreds to race over four-miles-plus is never going to be easy.

On Saturday, some welcome spring heat was the problem. It’s less than a month and a half, though, since Newcastle’s Eider Chase was run on bog-like conditions in winter cold and nine of the 12 starters were pulled up exhausted, prompting suggestions the race shouldn’t have been run at all. The 2008 Aintree hero Comply Or Die was one of those pulled up. He was pulled up too on Saturday. As asks go, running four miles, whatever the conditions, is big.

That is the essential challenge of the Aintree National. No horse ever met it better than the triple-winner Red Rum, whose trainer, Ginger McCain, also saddled Amberleigh House to win the world’s most famous steeplechase. The colourful 80-year-old might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but only the most flint-hearted could have resented him pride in his son Donald adding to the family’s unique National history.

McCain Jnr came within touching distance of a Champion Hurdle success with Peddlers Cross less than a month previously, and had already carved out a reputation as one of the main young training talents in Britain. There was a synchronicity though to his breakthrough triumph coming in the National.

“I suppose I am a bit Cheltenham-obsessed in many ways, but then you realise what Aintree means to the north west,” said the Cheshire-based trainer.

“I know it’s easy to say now that he’s won a National, but it really is a pleasure to train this horse.”

McCain has also never failed to acknowledge the input of his Meath-reared jockey Jason Maguire in his rise through the ranks, which now sees him sit third in the British trainer’s table.

Maguire’s uncle, Adrian, never managed to win the National during his glittering career in the saddle, and Maguire must have felt his National chance had gone when loyalty to McCain resulted in him turning down the ride on the 2007 winner Silver Birch.

He rode Ballabriggs with a hand injury picked up just two days previously, but there was a lightness of touch throughout that morphed into a power-packed finish that kept Oscar Time in his place.

“He was probably doing too much throughout the race, and going to the Elbow I was thinking the petrol was running out,” Maguire reported. “For a doubtful stayer that was an unbelievable performance.”

The plan is for Ballabriggs to be back at Aintree in 2012: whatever about the controversies that surround the famous old race, he won’t be alone.

TOOLE IN COMA AFTER FALL

CONDITIONAL JOCKEY Peter Toole is in a medically-induced coma after sustaining head injuries at Aintree on Saturday.

The 22-year-old Irish rider suffered bleeding on the right side of his brain when 100 to 1 shot Classic Fly fell at the first fence during the Maghull Novices’ Chase.

Toole was taken to Fazakerley Hospital, near Aintree, but was later transferred to the neighbouring Walton Centre for Neurology and Neurosurgery.

Trainer Charlie Mann, to whom Toole is attached, said: “He’s in an induced coma and he won’t be brought out until Monday at the earliest.

“He has bleeding on the right-hand side of his brain. He also dislocated a shoulder which has since been put back in place.

“He’s on a ventilator, and it’s not great – but we won’t know any more until Monday.”

Toole has ridden 30 winners this season and was due to have six rides at Wincanton yesterday.