BACK in February, when Tony McCoy was announcing to the world that he would be hanging up his whip at the end of the season, there was another decidedly less high-profile retirement being actively considered.

In her small yard in the rural outpost of Redmarley, Gloucestershire, Hilary Parrott was weighing up the future of Wayward Prince. A thoroughly miserable outing at Exeter, in which the horse was forced to pull up, had been the final straw.

The 11-year-old, a Grade One hurdle winner in 2010, was out of form, out of gas and very close to being taken out of training.

What a difference a matter of months make.

As the mercurial McCoy made his final outing at the Coral Scottish Grand National meeting at Ayr Racecourse, who could have imagined he would spend this sun-kissed afternoon in the shadow of a horse that was set to be put out to pasture?

AP's hopes of winning a second Scottish National were dashed when Paul Nicholls opted to withdraw Benvolio on Friday as a consequence of drying conditions and unsuitable ground.

He would have done well to get the better of Wayward Prince anyway.

Priced at 25-1 and available at 40s in some quarters earlier in the week, he jumped like a stag throughout and showed the kind of warrior spirit that has marked McCoy's stellar career to hold off Goonyella and Benbens up the final straight under the guidance of Irish jockey Robbie Dunne.

He had always been in a threatening position before hitting the front four from home and overcame intense pressure in the closing stages to hold on for a magnificent victory by just three- quarters of a length.

"He had two really bad runs and pulled up twice and we took him to Exeter when he seemed to be galloped off his legs," recalled Parrott, who only has a handful of horses and has become just the third female trainer of a Scottish National winner after Jenny Pitman and Lavinia Taylor. "I thought: 'Well, I think I am going to retire him.'

"Something has turned the tide, but I don't know what it is.

"I just cannot believe it. It is amazing and I am absolutely over the moon.

"I could see he was going so well and I thought to myself: 'You have just got to stay now, old chap, for these last two fences.' He had never gone four miles before as he fell in the National last year.

"He ran like a dream, didn't he? He loved every minute of it. He was jumping for England and Robbie gave him a dream ride by getting into a lovely rhythm early on.

"He does get looked after like a baby and we all love him. I used to train and he had lost his form after being trained by Ian Williams, so I thought: 'Oh, damn. I'll have a go myself.

"He goes out every day and you can give him a lot of attention in a small yard. He is very, very happy and looked magnificent in the paddock before the race.

"It was as if he was just saying: 'Hey-ho, here I come'.

"Lauriann Yorke is my head girl and she is amazing. She looks after this horse, does all the work and I cannot thank her enough."

Treatment for stomach ulcers shortly after that awful affair at Exeter certainly seems to have been a contributory factor in Wayward Prince's return to form with an impressive win in the Grimthorpe Chase at Doncaster in late February getting him back on the straight and narrow.

The partnership he has developed with Dunne appears to be a match made in heaven as well and the 30-year-old Dubliner hopes that recording such a high-profile victory will give his career a leg-up at an important time.

"I went freelance around 18 months ago and this is a great boost for me," he said. "Winning races is the easy part, though. It is getting the rides.

"Sam Drinkwater, who I ride with for Tom Lacey, was originally going to ride the horse at Doncaster for the Grimthorpe Chase, but he couldn't do the weight. I went over and schooled the horse. Thankfully, Mrs Parrott gave me the ride and it went on from there.

"The start was crucial for him. Once he got into a good position, that was it.

"He was always happy through the race and jumped beautifully to keep his position. When he got to the front, he started idling a bit and, when they came to me at the last, I thought he was done, but he dug very, very deep."