DERMOT McLoughlin walked the track on Friday. Fairyhouse, his local track, his backyard. The journey from door to door is shorter than the distance from the start of the Irish Grand National to the finish.

Good ground, he thought. You’re going to have to handle good ground if you’re going to win the Irish Grand National.

Freewheelin Dylan handles good ground. Actually, he thrives on it, bounces off it. It was good to yielding when he won the Midlands National at Kilbeggan at the height of last summer, when he and Ricky Doyle bounced out of the gate, jumped to the front over the first fence and led from there to the winning line.

Freewheelin Dylan and Ricky Doyle bounced out of the gate again at Fairyhouse on Monday. That was the plan. If I can get over the first, the rider had told the trainer, and get into a rhythm, we can have a go.

Second jumping the first fence, they were first jumping the second. Then the rhythm. Sheila Mangan’s horse settled into his race at the head of the Irish National field, and jumped.

Dermot McLoughlin watched from the steps in front of the big screen, alternating his gaze between the big screen and the track. He watched Freewheelin Dylan in front, metronomic in his rhythm, and he watched his other horse Opposites Attract in behind.

“I was happy that both horses were well going into the race, and I knew that they would both like the ground. I was delighted with Freewheelin Dylan, he was jumping great out in front. Opposites Attract was further back, and he got a little crowded at a couple of fences.”

Ricky was able to get little breathers into him on the way around, and I think that was key. Ricky gave him a great ride.”

Racing up past the stands the first time, Freewheelin Dylan was still in front, bowling along with all his rivals stretched out behind him. Opposites Attract and Conor Maxwell were further back, but they were still travelling. They raced away from Dermot and up over the three fences that took them up to Ballyhack, and still Freewheelin Dylan led.

“He was jumping so well that Ricky was able to get little breathers into him on the way around, and I think that was key. Ricky gave him a great ride.”

Opposites Attract got crowded out of it at a few of his fences, and started to come under a ride from Conor Maxwell, but still Ricky Doyle sat still on the leader. They raced to the home turn and the dangers started to assemble around him, the fancied horses, Run Wild Fred, Latest Exhibition, Coko Beach. But, over the third last fence, and still nothing was travelling better than Freewheelin Dylan.

“When they jumped the third last fence, I started to think, this fellow is going to go close here. Then they jumped the second last and they still hadn’t got to him.”

Drove

Ricky Doyle drove Freewheelin Dylan down to the final fence, and looked for a stride. There wasn’t really one there, so he had to let him go in and pop. The horse flicked through the top of the fence, clever, and he was fast away on the landing side. The rider asked his horse for all that he had. A length in front and Run Wild Fred wasn’t closing. Then they hit the line.

“It was unreal,” says the trainer. “When he went past the winning line. The Irish Grand National. Unbelievable.”

The headlines were all about the price, 150/1, the longest odds for an Irish National winner ever. For the trainer though, the price was irrelevant. He knew that his horse had a real chance, he knows the type of horse that is required to win an Irish National, and he was confident enough in his own judgment to allow his horse take his chance.

Because Dermot McLoughlin and the Irish Grand National go way back. He remembers Irish Nationals as a kid, Easter Mondays, when he was more interested in the swings and the slides than he was in the racing. And he remembers Desert Orchid, the performance that he put up in 1990, carrying 12 stone, the grey horse and Richard Dunwoody, despite that mistake at the final fence, clear on the run-in. The crowds, the atmosphere.

“That was the only thing that was missing on Monday,” he says. “It was strange, with nobody there. The family couldn’t be there. Even the horse’s owner Sheila Mangan couldn’t be there, which was a real shame. In fairness to the people who were there, other trainers, members of the media, they gathered to clap us back into the winner’s enclosure.”

People celebrated in different ways, away from the racecourse. The video of Dermot’s cousin Oliver watching at home has gone viral. Sheila Mangan watched it at home with her friends, backed her horse at 66/1, backed him again at 100/1, backed him again at 150/1. What were they thinking?

“We got the photographs back there the other day,” says Dermot. “And they’re great. It’s just a pity that Sheila couldn’t be in them, and that the family couldn’t be in them. People will probably look back on the photos in years to come and wonder why there aren’t more people in them!”

“I’ve been lucky to have had some good horses and very good owners.”

It’s not surprising that he thinks of the photographs, what’s there for posterity, how people will look back on the 2021 Irish Grand National in future years. It’s in his DNA. The Irish Grand National roots run deep in the McLoughlin family. Dermot’s late father Liam rode for Tom Dreaper, and when you rode for Tom Dreaper, the Irish Grand National was always on your radar. On Easter Monday, you went to Fairyhouse and won the Irish National.

Tom Dreaper saddled the Irish National 10 times, including every year from 1960 to 1966 inclusive, and Tom’s son Jim won it four times between 1974 and 1978. Liam McLoughlin rode Arkle to win his first novices’ hurdle at Navan in 1962, when Pat Taaffe chose to ride Kerforo in the race instead. Later McLoughlin rode Kerforo to win the Irish Grand National in 1962.

Autographs

Liam McLoughlin also won the Thyestes Chase and the Leopardstown Chase and the Dan Moore Chase on Kerforo, and he won the Broadway Novices’ Chase at Cheltenham in 1965 on Arkloin, two years after Pat Taaffe had won the race on Arkle.

“People used to call to the house to see my dad,” says Dermot. “Ask him for his autograph. We had loads of newspaper cuttings in the house, old articles, old photographs, and my dad would always be delighted to get them out. People would come from all over Ireland, from Scotland. He used to love that, talking about the Dreaper horses, good horses.”

Liam McLoughlin had retired from riding by the time Dermot was born, but it didn’t mean that young Dermot wasn’t bitten by the bug. He started going in to Sean Connor’s on weekends and on school holidays, before going to Paddy Mooney’s, and then following in his father’s footsteps by going to ride for Jim Dreaper.

McLoughlin had his first winner with Ocean Bright, ridden by Robbie Dunne \ Healy Racing

“I loved working for Jim,” he says. “I learned so much from him, I learned about treating horses as individuals and giving them time to develop, especially staying chasers. Carvill’s Hill was there at the time, and Merry Gale and Harcon, top-class staying chasers.”

Dermot started breaking and pre-training young horses, combining that with riding for Jim Dreaper, until he made the decision to take out his own trainer’s licence.

His father passed away in August 2010. The following week, Dermot sent out his first runner on the track as a trainer, Ocean Bright, a grey Cozzene filly who had joined him from James Given, whom he sent to Roscommon for a two-and-a-half-mile maiden hurdle.

He didn’t really know what to expect, first runner, no frame of reference, but market expectations must have been relatively low, given that she was sent off an unconsidered 25/1 shot. Ridden by Robbie Dunne, Ocean Bright travelled well just behind the leaders into the home straight, hit the front on the run to the second last flight, and battled on well on the far side to hold off the challenge of a Charlie Swan-trained mare, Step Right Up, to get home by a neck.

“It was a poignant victory all right. I would have loved if my dad had been around for that.”

Vics Canvas leads over the last in the 2016 Grand National

His second winner was Vics Canvas, who won a bumper at Naas the following November, and Vics Canvas kicked on, carrying the Dermot McLoughlin flag for the next six years. He won three times over hurdles and he won the Cork Grand National in 2014, but he also ran some massive races in defeat, most notably in his final race, in the 2016 Aintree Grand National.

A 13-year-old who was allowed to go off at 100/1, he stayed on gallantly to finish third behind Rule The World and The Last Samuri, and that was after making a mistake at Becher’s Brook that should have put him out of the race.

“I’ve been lucky to have had some good horses and very good owners.”

And he is building. Even before last Monday, Dermot McLoughlin had amassed more prize money for his owners this season in Ireland than he had in any other season before. The near €200,000 that Freewheelin Dylan picked up on Monday almost doubled his total for the season, took it through the €400,000 mark.

In-form

The horses are running well too. Thunderosa was impressive in winning a three-mile handicap hurdle in February at Punchestown, and he made light of a 9lb hike when he went in again at Cork two weeks ago, in a race in which his stable companion Lee Valley Legacy finished third.

Avellino won her beginners’ chase at Clonmel by 12 lengths, and ran well for a long way before fading late on to finish fourth behind Scarlet And Dove in a Grade 2 mares’ chase at Limerick three weeks ago. Grade 2 bumper winner Santa Rossa ran out an impressive winner of her maiden hurdle at Navan four weeks ago.

“Unfortunately Santa Rossa had a small setback, she’s gone home. But we think we have a nice bunch of horses. We have about 40 horses, that’s a nice number, and we have a great team here.”

He is looking to the future with Freewheelin Dylan too. He could be an Aintree Grand National horse. The Irish handicapper raised him by 8lb for Monday’s win, to a mark of 145, and a mark like that could be ideal for Aintree.

You never know, on this day next year, Aintree Grand National day, Freewheelin Dylan could be making headlines again.