2009 Grand National

The 2009 Grand National (officially known as the John Smith's Grand National for sponsorship reasons) was the 162nd running of the Grand National horse race that took place at Aintree Racecourse near Liverpool, England, on 4 April 2009.

A 100/1 outsider, the French-bred Mon Mome, ridden by Liam Treadwell, won the race by 12 lengths from the previous year's winner Comply or Die (14/1) in a time of 9 minutes 34 seconds. Mon Mome became the first 100/1 shot to win since Foinavon in 1967. He also became the first winner of the race to have been bred in France for 100 years.

Mon Mome was trained by Venetia Williams at her Herefordshire stables and was owned by Vida Bingham of East Sussex.

Seventeen runners completed the 4-mile 4 furlong course over Aintree's National circuit. Hear The Echo collapsed during the latter stages of the race and later died.

Note: Trained in Great Britain unless otherwise stated in brackets.

2007 Irish Grand National winner Butler's Cabin was made the favourite having fallen in the previous year's National when going well and in addition he had champion jockey Tony McCoy in the saddle. The favourite was still among a group of sixteen horses who still held serious chances with four fences to jump but he made a mistake at the 27th and was always struggling to get back on terms with those at the head of the group. After the race, jockey Tony McCoy said: "He ran OK. He's probably still a bit high in the handicap. From Becher's on the second circuit he was just starting to get a little bit tired and he made a lot of little mistakes late on."

My Will was made favourite for the race after finishing fifth in the Cheltenham Gold Cup but was sent off as joint-second favourite on the day with two-time winning rider Ruby Walsh in the saddle. Despite a series of jumping errors the horse turned for the home straight marginally leading an unusually large contending pack of sixteen horses and briefly looked to be on the way to victory at the penultimate flight. The horse was quickly passed by the eventual winner and took the last flight in third place where he remained, finishing 13¼ lengths behind the winner. Jockey Ruby Walsh said: "He was just hitting the fences low and I was really having to work hard at keeping him upright. We did well to stay on our feet."

Rambling Minster was identified as the 'trend' horse after winning the Blue Square Gold Cup at Haydock two months before the National. Despite ticking all the boxes the tipsters looked for in a potential National winner, he proved very disappointing in the race itself and was well to the rear when he was almost brought down at the 18th fence and was pulled up soon after. Jockey James Reveley said afterwards: "He didn't take to it and just didn't like it. He jumped OK until he made a mistake down the back and he was looking after himself after that so I pulled up going down the back on the second circuit."