'It was as if someone had hit me with a bus. I pulled down my goggles and cried'

Lee Mottershead hears how the jockey who could have ridden Mon Mome last year broke down in the middle of the track as his friend wentclear after the last in the Grand National

IT IS not uncommon for Grand National victory to reduce a jockey to tears. Following Mon Mome's 100-1 success last year, it happened to Aidan Coleman, but for all the wrong reasons. Twelve months on, the same race and the same horse could lead the same man to shed tears of an altogether happier kind.

For the good-natured Coleman, last season, effectively only his second in the sport, was a stellar one. A first Cheltenham Festival success and his coronation as conditional jockeys' champion put the seal on an astonishingly rapid rise to the upper rungs of his profession.

However, what could have been a fairytale ending to the campaign turned out to be a nightmare when Mon Mome carried not Coleman but Liam Treadwell to improbable glory in the world's most famous horserace.

For his good friend Treadwell, Coleman was thrilled. For himself, he was gutted. The 21-year-old, now firmly established as stable jockey to Venetia Williams, could have donned Vida Bingham's silks and ridden Mon Mome. Instead, he selected stablemate Stan, the chaser he also preferred to eventual winner Something Wells in last year's Freddie Williams Festival Plate.

Picking Stan proved to be the wrong move at Cheltenham. It was just as wrong,but considerably more painful, at Aintree.

"Choosing between them was a very close call," says Coleman. "I remember Venetia telling me a month before the race that Mon Mome and Stan were both likely runners and that I should think which one I wanted to ride.

"On the Monday before the race, she needed an answer. If Mon Mome hadn't run in the Midlands National it would have been a no-brainer, but he was beaten 57 lengths at Uttoxeter and I didn't think he could win a Grand National after that.

"With hindsight, that was stupid of me, as the horse had won a £100,000 race at Cheltenham and started favourite for the Welsh National. I was wrong, but it was my decisionand I have to live with it."

Coleman has been living with it ever since. Stan, the horse Coleman describes as his "best friend" thanks to three breakthrough wins in major handicaps, got no further than the seventh fence. What the jockey went through in the minutes that followed was nothing less than a rollercoaster of emotion.

"Stan hated every second of it," he recalls. "After jumping the first, I was thinking: ‘Uh-oh, this isn't going to be good'. I couldn't believe he got as far as Becher's, but he then took a terrible fall at Foinavon. When I got up, I could see he was on his back, so I ran to him as quick as I could. He's my favourite horse,so it was a great feeling when he got to his feet and, once I knew he was okay, I started leading him back up to the track towards the first fence thinking that the only horse I wanted to win now was Mon Mome.

"I remember seeing Liam go past me travelling well on the second circuit and, after that, I could hear the commentators calling Mon Mome's name every time I walked past one of the tannoys.

"As we reached the first fence, I heard the commentator saying Mon Mome had jumped the final fence and gone clear. I shouted him home thinking this was brilliant, but, as I heard him called the winner, I experienced the strangest feeling I've ever known.

"I was so happy for Liam because he's always been great to me, but, at the same time, it was as if someone had hit me with a bus. I've never known anything like it. I brought the horse back to the middle of the track, where I knew no-one could see me, I put my goggles down and I cried. I didn't stop cryinguntil just before I had to hand the horse back to his groom. Then, I took a deep breath, wiped my eyes and walked away.

"It was so surreal, so weird. Plenty of my friends in the weighing room said nice things, including Liam, butRichie McLernon could see I was on a different planet, so he grabbed me, took me into the bathroom and splashed loads of water on my face. I rode in the next race, but straight after that the National came flooding back. The drive home was very hard.

"What changed things was being back in Venetia's the following Tuesday and seeing how much winning the National had meant to everyone. All the guys there are up first thing every morning and they deserved to win a National. It wasn'tall doom and gloom. What happened that day at Aintree will live with me for the rest of my life, but worse things happen to better people."

And now, consolation could be just around the corner. Mon Mome, on whom Coleman finished tenth in the 2008 National, will be his mount in seven days' time, as he was last month when charging up the Cheltenham hill to finish third in the Gold Cup. It's hard to think of a performance that could have better whetted the appetite.

"I wasn't surprised by his Gold Cup run and it left me over the moon," insists Coleman. "Although he was third, he only got one flick of the whip at the top of the hill and after that galloped all the way to the line. He was jumping around like a madman in the winner's enclosure, so there's no chance he was bottomed. I'm not worried about that at all.

"Nothing went right for him the season I rode him in the National, but he also wouldn't have finished third in a Gold Cup last year, so he's obviously improving. He's been there and done it, which is a big thing, and he was no fluke winner last season - you only have to ask how many horses in the Grand National could finish third in a Gold Cup.

"There are 40 runners and it's a lottery, but I wouldn't swap him for the world. Venetia has always been super to me and Mon Mome's owner is the loveliest lady you could meet. It's so good of them to let me back on the horse and I want to repay their faith."

Having already this term fired in a career-best total of 64 winners - 29 of them for Williams - the constantly improving Coleman has been repaying his supporters all season. Yet the whole season has been leading to one race and one racecourse that has already left an indelible mark on a fine young man.

"I haven't dared to think how I'll feel if we win," he admits. "Three years ago I hadn't ridden a winner and I know  I'm so lucky to be in the position I am now. When I go back to Aintree, I'll enjoy it and I'll do my best."

Coleman has shown his best is more than good enough. Now he just needs a little Aintree luck.