'Even Maradona couldn't swerve her like I did!' Mick Fitzgerald reveals how his infamous 'better than sex' comment to Des Lynam after 1996 Grand National win got him into serious hot water with his fiancée

Mick Fitzgerald has revealed how he was forced to dodge his fiancée after infamously telling Des Lynam winning the 1996 Grand National was 'better than sex'.

The Irish jockey rode Rough Quest to victory at Aintree but then spent the celebrations avoiding wife-to-be Jane after he said live on the BBC: 'After that, Des, even sex is an anti-climax!'

Fitzgerald, now a television racing pundit, joked even Diego Maradona 'didn't have the moves I had when it came to swerving her'.

He would later title his autobiography 'Better Than Sex', but Fitzgerald told Paddy Power's 'From The Horse's Mouth' Aintree Punters Panel podcast how it caused him a fair bit of awkwardness at the time.

'When I said that to Des Lynam, I was actually engaged at the time and my fiancée wasn't at Aintree,' he said.

'She was watching on TV like the other 10 million people that saw it.

'So when I got home that night, it was quite late and we had a party so like there was banners 'well done', 'well done Grand National winner' and everybody's inside.

'I had managed to dodge her all night basically because I knew I was going to get it at some stage for what I said!

'Honestly Maradona didn't have the moves that I had when it came to swerving her, but eventually I got cornered and she says: 'Oh that was brilliant, I'm so pleased for you, well done, but what about what you said?'

'And I said: 'Look, I'm really sorry about that,' and she said: 'I've only got one thing to say about that,' and I said: 'What's that?' and she said: 'How often is the Grand National run?'

After Paddy Power trader Frank Hickey quipped 'to be fair the Grand National lasts about 11 minutes,' Fitzgerald replied: 'Well she did say I would never last that long!'

The 1996 race saw favourite Rough Quest overtake Encore Un Peu in the closing stages with the result only confirmed following a steward's enquiry to assess whether Fitzgerald's horse crossed and impeded Encore Un Peu. 

Fitzgerald previously spoke about the Lynam interview to Off the Ball: 'There was a stewards' enquiry immediately after the race and I thought I was going to become the first ever jockey to win the National and lose it in the stewards' room. 

'So we had quite a long wait before the winner was actually announced. Des Lynam as far as I was concerned was like a half brother to God. He was Mr. Saturday TV. And being introduced to him I got a bit carried away.'

'He said: 'Mick Fitzgerald you have just won the Grand National, how does that feel?'

'And I said Des, 'after that, even sex is an anti-climax'. Obviously now I work in television and you've got somebody in your ear telling you. 

'I could just see Des' eyes flicker when I said it and somebody must have went to him, 'Holy bleep', did he really just say that!"