THE family that can’t stop winning Grand Nationals did it again.

Ballabriggs (14-1) gave the McCain clan a fifth triumph in the world’s most famous race – as North Yorkshire’s half-century wait for a winner continued.

Following the legendary Ginger McCain’s hat-trick with Red Rum in the 1970s, and Amberleigh House’s 2004 win, son Donald got his hands on the prize following a consummate performance from his ten-year-old.

Jockey Jason Maguire had his mount positioned around the head of the field from an early stage of the marathon contest and the rider later admitted he was worried his horse was doing too much early on.

But, following the final fence, it was between Ballabriggs and Oscar Time (14-1), whose rider Sam Waley-Cohen was looking to complete the double of Cheltenham Gold Cup and Grand National following Long Run’s victory at Prestbury Park three week’s ago.

Oscar Time almost got alongside at the Elbow but Ballabriggs found more on the run in to clinch a two-and-a-quarter length success.

Last year’s winner, Don’t Push It, put up a valiant display for Tony McCoy before finishing a further 12 lengths back in third.

The race was marred by the deaths of Ornais and Dooneys Gate, who both fell on the first circuit, and meant two of the 30 fences were bypassed second time around.

McCain said: “Amazing, simply amazing. We always felt that Ballabriggs was the right type for this race and everything has gone so smoothly in his preparation.

“His recent race at Kelso put him spot on for this and we’ll have the mother and father of parties when we get home.

“It’s just incredible, isn’t it? We have always genuinely thought that this might be an Aintree horse and you only have to see the way that he took the place to see what he has done.”

Maguire said: “The biggest problem I had was just trying to get him to relax. He took to it really well but he was probably doing a bit too much early on.

“But once he was off the bridle and straightened up he really dug deep and was always going to hang on.”

Big Fella Thanks, trained by Ferdy Murphy at West Witton, was best of the North Yorkshire finishers in seventh.

Having made a bad error around the halfway mark, the nine-year-old, ridden by Graham Lee, travelled well on the inside and loomed up at the third last.

Taking the final fence, he still had chances of victory but there have always been question marks over his stamina and, not for the first time in the National, he was unable to last the four-and-a-half mile distance and faded away.

King Fontaine, for Norton’s Malcolm Jefferson, was very slow over the third fence and never really got back into gear – anchored towards the back of the field and coming home in 11th.

With him was Character Building, whose jockey Nina Carberry made history by becoming the first woman to ride in three Nationals.

Seventh last year, the 11-year-old grey, also trained at Norton by John Quinn, struggled at the rear of the field throughout before ending up 15th of the 19 finishers.