Liam Treadwell won the John Smith Grand National Steeple Chase during day three of the John Smiths Grand National Meeting at Aintree in Liverpool on the 4th April 2009, riding Mon Mome. It was a definite tale of triumph as he steered Mon Mome, which means ‘My kid’, to victory at odds of 100 to 1, the biggest priced winner in the 7,200 metre race. The race was watched by the 70,130 strong Aintree crowd, but few of them had backed Mon Mome, a nine year old who finished 10th in 2008.

Liam had spent seven years trying to make a breakthrough as a jockey, first on the flats and then over jumps. Treadwell, 23, who himself admits that he had ‘never even had a sniff of a ride round the big fences before’, rode round like Aintree like a true professional.

Treadwell’s father has been a work-rider and stablehand at John Dunlop’s Arundel yard for 20 years, while his mother still works there part-time. Treadwell began his career by riding point-to-pointers for Nick Gifford but at 8 stone was too light so became an apprentice on the Flat for Amanda Perett and Dandy Nicholls. He became too heavy, and says that he always knew in the long-term that he was going to end up jumping. It was a call out of the blue from Gifford asking him to ride his horses in 2008 that revitalised his career.

Where winning the National will take Treadwell is yet to be seen, but one thing is certain, Treadwell is not just a flash in the pan as he won the United House Gold Cup at Ascot at the end of October on The Last Derby, at odds of 33-1. The five year old was trainer Eoin Griffin’s second runner, but Treadwell won the race by five lengths, proving too strong for Aimigayle and Shining Gale.

Despite tremendous success in the 2009 Grand National, can he really do it again in 2010? Winning this prestigious race is often a one off moment of glory for so many jockeys and those that have won it twice or more are rare to say the least but interesting ly enough, he will probably have a wider choice of picks this year, capitalising on his winning form, which means that he could be in for a very good ride so don’t write him off just yet…

Though I don’t know who Treadwell is riding you can still put a few quid on the ante post horses at Paddy Power.