Category: Grand National

The short answer is yes, he did. On April 10, 1999, Paul Carberry won the Grand National on the 9-year-old Bobbyjo, owned by Robert Burke and trained by his father, Tommy. Of course, Tommy Carberry had ridden L’Escargot, the last Irish-trained horse to win the Grand National before Bobbyjo, in 1975, so victory for Bobbyjo was especially memorable for the Carberry family.

Bobbyjo had won the Irish National at Fairyhouse, under Carberry, a year earlier, but his only win since had come in his preparatory race for the Grand National, a two-mile handicap hurdle at Down Royal in March, under Carberry’s younger brother, Philip. At Aintree, Bobbyjo was 14lb out of the handicap but, in the face of sustained market support, was sent off 10/1 co-third favourite of three, behing Fiddling The Facts, trained by Nicky Henderson, and Double Thriller, trained by Paul Nicholls.

The market support proved to be justified because, having tracked the leaders for much of the way, Bobbyjo was switched to the outside to deliver his challenge at the final fence and was driven clear on the run-in to beat Blue Charm by 25 lengths. Bobbyjo never won again and was humanely euthanised, as an 11-year-old, in 2001. Reflecting on his career, Paul Carberry said, ‘He was a very easy horse to ride. He would settle for you and you could do anything you wanted with him. He was also very genuine and he jumped brilliantly.’

The first female jockey to ride in the Grand National was 21-year-old Charlotte Brew who, in 1977, partnered her own horse, the 12-year-old Barony Court. A safe, if rather slow, jumper Barony Court had qualified for the National by finishing fourth in the fourth in the Foxhunters’ Open Hunters’ Chase, over the Grand National fences, the previous season. Although her mount was an apparent no-hoper, the significance of her participation in the celebrated steeplechase, following the enactment of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, made Brew front-page news beforehand.

Set off at 200/1, Barony Court was still standing at the fourth-last fence, where he refused, not once, but four times, before Brew finally gave up. Unfortunately, after the race, Charlotte Brew and Barony Court were rather overshadowed by Tommy Carberry and Red Rum, who beat Churchtown Boy by 25 lengths to record his historic third win in the National, after his previous victories in 1973 and 1974. In fact, as Red Rum was being led towards the winners’ enclosure, Brew was spotted by Sir Peter O’Sullevan, in the vicinity of the Melling Road, hacking Barony Court back towards the grandstands.

The first female jockey to win a Grade 1 National Hunt race in Britain was Lizzie Kelly. She did so on Boxing Day, 2015, when she rode Tea For Two, trained by her stepfather Nick Williams, to victory in the Kauto Star Novices’ Chase at Kempton Park. The following season she rode the same horse in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, thereby becoming the first female jockey to ride in the ‘Blue Riband’ event for 33 years. Sadly, Tea For Two blundered badly and unseated her at just the second fence on that occasion, but made amends by carrying her to a second Grade 1 victory, in the Betway Bowl, at Aintree.

Kelly also tasted success at the Cheltenham Festival, winning the Ultima Handicap Chase on Coo Star Sivola in 2018 and the Brown Advisory & Merriebelle Stable Plate on Siruh Du Lac in 2019. Both horses were trained, once again, by Nick Williams.

In July, 2020, Kelly announced that she was expecting her first child with husband Ed Partridge and, consequently, would not be returning to the saddle that season and ‘in all likelihood not at all’. Nevertheless, Kelly remained involved in racing, launching a bloodstock venture, Valentine Bloodstock, alongside her husband. The couple celebrated their first winner as owners when Hamilton Dici landed a gamble in the Wigley Group Merry Christmas Juvenile Maiden Hurdle at Warwick in December, 2020.

Several of the ‘named’ fences on the Grand National course are contenders for the most difficult fence. In the order in which they are jumped during the Grand National, they are Becher’s Brook, which is jumped as the sixth and twenty-second fence, the Canal Turn, which is jumped as the eighth and twenty-fourth fence and The Chair, which is jumped just once, as the fifteenth fence.

Named after pioneering jockey Captain Martin Becher, Becher’s Brook stands 4′ 10″ high and while it appears fairly innocuous from the take-off side, the steep drop on the landing side, which is up to 10″ lower than the take-off side, is what makes the fence so difficult. In the case of the Canal Turn, it is the orientation of the fence that can cause problems. To avoid galloping into the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, from which the fence takes it name, Grand National must either jump the fence at an acute angle or turn sharply left, through 90º, immediately after jumping the fence.

The Chair may be jumped just once during the Grand National, but is nonetheless, the tallest and broadest fence on the National fence. The fence itself stands 5’3” high, but is preceded by a 6′ wide ditch, with the added complication of a landing side that is 6” higher than the take-off side. Consequently, The Chair is the fence that is widely considered the most difficult on the Grand National course.