Kildare's Ruby Walsh reaches incredible milestone by landing sixth Grand National in different countries

The brilliant Ruby Walsh added another sparkle to his already glittering jockey career last night when he captured the American Grand National in New Jersey last night.

The Kill native has already got the exclusive set of wins in the English, Irish, Welsh and Scottish Grand Nationals, while he has also won the Australian equivalent too. Last night in New Jersey he partnered Rawnaq to victory in the feature race at Far Hills, further emphasising the fact that he is one of the greatest to ever take the reins of a horse.

Trained by Cyril Murphy, Rawnaq is usually ridden by Jack Doyle, but he suffered an injury in the last number of weeks that meant Walsh could step in and take to the saddle of the odds-on favourite. He won comfortably, and Walsh was delighted to secure a big payday.

Walsh said: "It went really well, unfortunately his usual jockey Jack Doyle suffered some bad injuries a few weeks ago and that's why I'm here.

"I was the lucky guy who got to ride him today. He'd run over fences in Ireland and I was confident in his ability to jump, and jump racing is about being able to jump. Thank you to Mr Naylor for bringing me over and it's great to be here.

"The race unfolded beautifully, he jumped the first couple really well. It was an honest pace all the way, and when the English horses slackened off he outstayed them from there. The hill was quite testing, but he was in unbelievable shape.

"I saw too much of Rawnaq the other day, but I learnt that day he is a really strong stayer, Jack rode him and we couldn't get by him and he showed that again today the way he battled from the last fence.

"I didn't need to be asked twice to come, I thought he was the best steeplechase horse in America. It was a no brainer, and it's a huge purse. I was always going to come.

"What will spur Jack on in the next couple of months of his recovery would be riding this horse at Cheltenham."

Walsh was not staying around for too long in the American state to celebrate as he hopped straight on a plane to return to Ireland for a meeting at Cork on Sunday where he was penciled in for four rides.