Something unusual happened at Aintree on Saturday, and it was not simply the 100-1 starting price of the Grand National winner. In its human elements, the confounding 12-length victory of Mon Mome was an entirely English affair. As the trainer is a woman, the jockey was having his first National ride and the horse the first French-bred winner for a century, it seems a colourful addition to Liverpool legend.

So why did it not feel that way? Why was the reception so muted and the customarily emotional media conference so staid? Certainly, it reflected no disfavour on those involved, respectively the admirable and often underrated Venetia Williams, her silver-haired owner Vida Bingham and the modest Liam Treadwell, whose mother had fretted about him having a haircut for the cameras.

This was a worthy cast, in many ways a throwback to the innocence and uncertainty of the race in generations past. And perhaps there is the rub. The National had moved on, its terrain less hostile and its scripts less random. It had become a playground for celebrity expectations, for top horses and jockeys, many of whom were scrapping for the crumbs of place money some way adrift of this fanciful winner.

That is why the broadest smiles of the aftermath were worn by smug bookmakers - never a pleasant sight - and why it was difficult to find anyone with a winning wager beyond the close confines of Williams's Herefordshire stable. For the truth is that even trainer and jockey had met beforehand with hopes confined to getting round safely.

Williams chooses her words as carefully as her tailored clothes. “It's a race you always assume is out of reach,” she said. “You don't think too much about it, or you will set yourself up for disappointment.” Treadwell mirrored the mood when recalling how he had silently chided himself in mid-race when he felt he was creeping into contention. “I just thought I was being stupid,” he said.

Yet this pair now belong in National history, responsible for the first 100-1 winner in 42 years, this one requiring none of the memorable mayhem that permitted Foinavon his glory. Mon Mome won on merit and with bewildering conviction, finishing with gusto to mock his exhausted and more vaunted pursuers.

Treadwell, 23, is only a third-choice jockey for Williams and this was just his sixth steeplechase winner of the season. Told, by the trainer, to treat “daylight like gold dust”, he rode his nimble horse with calm assurance before returning to the enclosure with nothing more extrovert than a quaint touch of his cap. “I saw an awful lot of blank faces staring at me,” he admitted.

Williams had sprinted down from the rooftop terrace with Bingham, who reported her trainer's volume and language in the closing stages had contradicted her restrained image. The National may have changed but it can still draw out the deepest extremes of behaviour.

Bingham moved on to racing after playing bridge for England and employed Williams because she considered her “honest and trustworthy”. Many more testimonies are appropriate now that she has become the second lady of Aintree, 26 years after Jenny Pitman broke the mould.

In 1988, Williams had a National mount that started at twice the price of Mon Mome. Marcolo left her unconscious at Becher's and, a fortnight later, her amateur riding career ended when she broke her neck at Worcester. Instead, she turned her inquisitive, workaholic nature to training and, 15 years on, is the leader of her gender.

Four of the seven Aintree races on Saturday were won by female trainers but the others have much to do to catch Williams. It may seem a long time since Teeton Mill raised her profile by winning the Hennessy and King George in 1998 but her hallmark since has been consistent success with horses that slip below the public radar.

She did it twice at Cheltenham this year, with Something Wells and Kayf Aramis, and Mon Mome has taken her career to uncharted heights. Williams, approaching 50 as a single woman with an Aston Martin for kicks, is to be celebrated, no matter the wider indifference to this result.