Racing: No pushing it for patient Grand National winning team

The morning after the afternoon before and Don't Push It was nonchalantly strolling around in his field at the bottom of the Jackdaws Castle gallops.

Few would have been able to guess he had landed the world's greatest steeplechase, the Grand National, fewer than 24 hours earlier.

A couple of hundred yards away, at the Plough Inn at Ford, high in the Cotswolds above Cheltenham, a vast swathe of well-wishers, TV crews, photographers and journalists are patiently waiting for the equine hero to emerge.

Don't Push It's trainer, Jonjo O'Neill, also had to wait patiently - in his case for a Grand National victory.

"I have always wanted to win the race, and now it has happened it is one of those dreams that you think will never come true, but for me it has and I could not feel more delighted," he told the Racing Post on Monday.

The only person on Sunday morning possibly feeling even more delighted was jockey Tony McCoy, for whom winning the world's greatest steeplechase had also, until Sunday, remained frustratingly elusive.

"After all those years of trundling out of the course following the disappointments of the likes of Clan Royal and Butler's Cabin, it is important to me I've finally won it, as it is a race where emotions run high in everyone," said McCoy, who on Sunday was as highly-charged as he has ever been.

However, it would appear that a member of the constabulary did not back Don't Push It after booking McCoy for using his phone while driving just hours after his victory.

In an article on the Daily Telegraph website, the jockey described how he had been pulled over by police while on the phone to his mother after riding Don't Push It to victory.

"After the racing and all the interviews were done, I drove into Liverpool and I hadn't gone more than a few hundred yards when the police pulled me over for talking on my mobile phone," McCoy wrote.

"I couldn't believe it when they did me for three points - you would have thought that on Saturday of all days they might have let me off, especially as I was on the phone to my mum at home in Ireland."

The Telegraph reported that McCoy was fined the equivalent of about $60 and lost three points on his driving licence for answering his mother's call.

Police said: "We can confirm that a 35-year-old man from Oxfordshire was issued with a fixed penalty notice for using a mobile phone while driving."

Meanwhile, pre-post favourite Denman has been ruled out of Saturday's Scottish Grand National at Ayr.

Trainer Paul Nicholls said the likelihood of firmer than ideal ground was the reason he had decided to miss the feature with Denman, who will now be prepared for the Guinness Gold Cup at Punchestown on next week.

"I spoke to [joint-owner] Paul Barber, and, basically, it's going to be a dry, warm, windy week," Nicholls told the Racing Post.

"Even if they water Ayr, the ground is not going to be right for him so we have made an early decision not to run - that will make life a darn sight easier for everyone else planning for the race."

Denman's presence had been keeping all but three other entries out of the handicap but news he will not start is likely to attract further interest.

Denman's past nine wins, dating back to November 2006, have all been on tracks which have had some give in them likely to be a factor in whether he runs at Punchestown.