Curtis is able to smile at last with Scottish National win

WELSH trainer Rebecca Curtis rescued a nightmare season as her 33-1 outsider Joe Farrell clung on for a heart-stopping win in the £215,000 Coral Scottish National.

A week after Tiger Roll held on in the Grand National at Aintree, Joe Farrell, ridden by Adam Wedge, passed the post a nose in front but would have been collared by Ballyoptic in another stride.

It was an outcome which saved the bookies. The runner-up was a well-backed 9-1 shot while Vintage Clouds and Doing Fine, both 12-1, were third and fourth.

But it was a result that meant much more than money and odds for Curtis (above). The big success was only the ninth of a torrid season during which Pembrokeshire-based trainer split from her long-time partner Gearoid Costelloe and saw her horses struggle for form. But Joe Farrell’s part owner, London-based Mark Sherwood, a long-time supporter of Curtis, had urged her to run telling her a success in Britain’s fourth biggest betting race would put the trainer ‘back in the spotlight’. Curtis, who had never been to Ayr before, said: ‘Joe Farrell has been in great form at home. I was quietly confident and we had nothing to lose. It has been an awful season.’ For 28-year-old winning jockey Wedge, it was a biggest career success and also a good way to end a mixed season. In January, Wedge was banned for 21 days for taking the wrong course at Exeter.