THE NAME Rimell is woven into the rich tapestry of the Grand National, with the late Fred Rimell having trained the winner of the race on four occasions. Yesterday at Kempton, a horse simply called Simon served notice that he could be another Aintree contender for the Rimell family when victorious in the Racing Post Chase in the colours of Rimell’s widow, Mercy.

Simon is trained by John Spearing at the same Kinnersley stables from which Rimell sent out ESB (1956), Nicolaus Silver (1961), Gay Trip (1970) and Rag Trade (1976) to win at Aintree. Before yesterday’s 10-length triumph in the £100,000 chase, both trainer and owner had voiced concerns that this season’s John Smith’s Grand National might come one campaign too soon for the eight-year-old. Now, the 87-year-old Mrs Rimell admitted that they may have a rethink.

“I haven’t made a definite decision about running him, but I am thinking about it,” she said. “My thoughts were that it was a year too soon, but now I’m almost tempted to think I might.”

Spearing’s immediate reaction was to declare: “He’ll run!” However, if Rimell was looking for further evidence that the horse she bred out of her mare Gaye Memory has what it takes, a video of this triumph, powered by indomitable stamina in arduous conditions, may prove persuasive.

With five withdrawals due to the heavy ground, a field of 10 lined up for the three-mile contest, for which bottom-weight Lucifer Bleu was sent off the 15-8 favourite. The David Pipe-trained runner set the pace, but he made a telling blunder six fences from home and from there he was a target for Limerick Boy and Simon, who had been asked to make headway from halfway.

Turning for home, however, Simon and Andrew Thornton, on his first ride since injuring a leg in a fall three weeks ago, momentarily became the meat in a Lucifer Bleu-Limerick Boy sandwich. Some horses might have flinched, but Simon stayed resolute and led before the next fence. Although clearly tired as he clambered over the final fence, he kept galloping to beat Cornish Sett, who stayed on without threatening.

“I thought he would stay them out of it, which he did in the end,” Rimell said. “I’m absolutely beside myself. I can’t believe it. He’s given me so much pleasure, having bred him, and when you get so very old like me you want something.”

Rimell took out a training licence on the death of her husband and prepared Gaye Brief, who is from the same family as Simon, to win the 1983 Champion Hurdle. However, it was clear yesterday that the Grand National is a race that she adores above all. “I love it,” she said. “The Nationals we won were proper Nationals, not with these modified fences. Any horse that jumps a park course now should, in my opinion, jump round Aintree.”

Bookmakers offered 20-1 that Simon would jump round Aintree better than any other on April 14, a date Rimell might now write in her diary.

The day should be indelibly inked in the appointments’ book of trainer Venetia Williams as, shortly after Simon’s success, Nil Desperandum leapt to the head of the Grand National market with a tenacious victory under 11st 12lb in the four-mile one-furlong Eider Chase at Newcastle.