Bunny closes it out after near fatal error

The Bunny Boiler won a dramatic Powers Gold Label Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse on a day to remember for his trainer Noel Meade.

Named after the nightmarish rabbit-cooking scene in the movie Fatal Attraction, The Bunny Boiler sent Meade and jockey Ross Geraghty into dreamland.

'My biggest hero in racing was Tom Dreaper, who won this race so many times (10, including seven in-a-row) and to stand here is something I only dreamed of,' said Meade, who won three other races yesterday.

However, it very nearly didn`t happen as the eventual winner almost seemed determined to grab defeat from victory`s jaws with a huge mistake at the last.

'He half-guessed it,' reported Geraghty, who was riding just the 30th winner of his career. 'I had a good hold of his head and just prayed.' The 25-year-old jockey must have had a direct line to the top because The Bunny Boiler somehow survived the mistake and had enough in hand to hold off the gallant novice Give Over by a length and a half.

It was a further four lengths back to the 40 to 1 outsider Northern Sound, who was a chance ride for Shay Barry after Garrett Cotter had picked up a suspected fractured elbow in a previous race.

'She gave me a wonderful run,' reported Barry, but Paul Carberry in fourth on Arctic Copper was left wondering about what might have been after picking the wrong one of three Meade-trained runners.

Behind them on the long straight was a catalogue of disaster.

Rathbawn Prince, second last year, and ridden by the winning jockey`s better-known brother Barry, took a heavy fall at the third last.

Takagi, ridden by Ken Whelan after intended jockey Norman Williamson was shaken in an earlier fall, had his chance rubbed out by a bad mistake at the same obstacle.

The 25 to 1 novice Give Over was making the best of his way home when Rathbawn Prince`s stable companion Timbera took a crashing fall at the second last.

The Bunny Boiler, who took it up on the run to the last, seemed determined to do something similar but he found a leg and sent his owners into raptures.

'There are four of us in the Usual Suspects syndicate (two solicitors and two businessmen) from Dublin and Waterford and I bought him as a two-year-old,' said John Donnellan, whose wife Martina named the winner.

The Bunny Boiler had been raised 25lb for a Midlands Grand National success last month but still ran from 7lb out of the handicap because of the topweight Commanche Court.

The 2000 victor was beaten some way out this time and was pulled up before the last, while the English raider Trouble Ahead refused at the third last. 'In a race like that you can`t afford to lose your momentum and he just got a bit careful,' said Commanche Court`s trainer Ted Walsh.

The ?107,080 first prize gives Meade, twice champion trainer, a substantial lead in this season`s title race and the Co Meath-based handler relished the victory.

'I ran three because I thought they all had a chance but I couldn`t believe it when he hit the front,' he said. 'The last was his only mistake and when it happened, I thought `God, he`s gone!`

'Fairyhouse has always been a lucky course for us but he was coming back from running over four miles and you never know if that will work. He stays so well and I suppose we will think of the Aintree National next year.'

Oa Baldixe, the third of Meade`s runners, plugged on to be sixth on a day that will figure highly among those to remember in the trainer`s 30-year career.

Give Over made a valiant effort to give jockey Tom Rudd a second National success and become the longest priced winner since the 33 to 1 Bentom Boy in 1984.

But the 2002 National belonged to The Bunny Boiler.