A family tradition was maintained when Nicky Richards trained Takingrisks to win the Scottish Grand National, 50 years after his father won the race with Playlord. At 25-1 Takingrisks was not easy to pick out before the race and his chance did not improve when he nearly parted from his jockey, Sean Quinlan, at the first fence.

Where the fault lay for that is open to debate, since the horse appeared to get rather low at the obstacle, but Quinlan reported he “winged it and got bulldozered in the air” by an errant rival. “I nearly fell off him, I was hanging on to him for about 10 strides,” he said.

Takingrisks also screwed over the final fence, giving a final scare to the happy few who had faith in him before running on dourly to score by four lengths from Crosspark, with Cloth Cap and Blue Flight close behind. Big River stayed on into fifth from a mile back, having been terribly short of pace on what proved to be a fast surface.

Vintage Clouds was a slightly disappointing favourite in sixth, a week after falling at the first fence in the Grand National. The well-fancied Crosshue Boy clipped heels and fell soon after a perfectly clean jump over the seventh fence.

Richards was almost entirely lost for words when dragged in front of the TV cameras but eventually gathered his thoughts. Referring to his father, who won the race for a second time with Four Trix in 1990, Richards said: “He won it twice and I’ve followed up so it’s great.

“This was always going to be the race for Takingrisks, if he had a big one in him. I just need to find another now to match father.”

Playlord was a hugely significant horse in establishing the Richards training dynasty as he provided Richards Sr with his very first winner, in a novice hurdle at Bogside in 1965. He became the first of many horses to land quality steeplechases for the Greystoke stable, though he also gave connections a scare by bursting blood vessels the week before his Scottish National win, the first time he had done so.

This was thought to be caused by the dozen raw eggs the trainer was regularly folding into his feed, something that was immediately abandoned.

Quick Guide Racing tips for Sunday 14 April Show Wincanton

1.50 Tiffin Top (nap) 2.25 Serosevsky (nb) 3.00 Opening Batsman 3.30 Cousin Khee 4.05 Cap Horner 4.35 Southfield Vic 5.10 Adjourned Stratford

2.05 Ferrobin 2.40 Cillian’s Well 3.10 The Bottom Bar 3.45 Mauna Kea 4.20 Its All A Lark 4.50 Lac Sacre 5.25 Risk A Fine

Proving that horse racing is a tiny world, there is also a tenuous link between Richards Sr and the winner of the big race at Newbury. Mohaather, who put himself into 2,000 Guineas contention by landing the Greenham, was bred by Gaie Johnson Houghton whose daughter, Eve, is a trainer at Blewbury, where she employs as her assistant Derek Byrne, who rode Four Trix to glory at Ayr 29 years ago.

Punters seem to have trouble with Mohaather, who was a 33-1 shot when landing the Horris Hill in October. He was a drifter this time from 3-1 to 9-2 but moved through the race like a classy animal and was subsequently hailed by Marcus Tregoning as one of the fastest horses he has trained.

There have not been many live contenders for that description in the past few years as Mohaather is the first Group winner for Tregoning since Hawaafez in 2012.

But the colt is an exciting prospect and would give Tregoning a chance of Classic success at Newmarket next month, provided Sheikh Hamdan approves of his participation there.

“He has got plenty of pace,” Tregoning said.

“I think he will get the mile on faster ground, but they go a different pace and there are many more runners in the Guineas and it is a different test.

“It will be entirely up to the management where he goes, but I’m thrilled we have got this far.”