Category: Grand National

Racing historians may argue that Manifesto, who ran in the Grand National eight times between 1896 and 1904, was the greatest ‘National’ horse ever. Manifesto won the National twice, including under 12st 7lb in 1899, and finished third three times, including under 12st 8lb, as a 14-year-old, in 1902, so perhaps you can see their point.

However, the greatest National horse of modern times is, undoubtedly, Red Rum, who ran in five consecutive Grand Nationals between 1973 and 1977, winning in 1973, 1974 and 1977 and finishing second in 1975 and 1976. In 1975, attempting an unprecedented hat-trick, Red Rum was sent off 7/2 favourite but, despite jumping the second-last fence upsides the eventual winner L’Escargot, was soon left behind and had to settle for second, 15 lengths behind his old rival. In 1976, Red Red was narrowly ahead jumping the final fence, but was tackled by Rag Trade at the famous ‘Elbow’, halfway up the run-in and, although rallying in the closing stages, went down fighting, by two lengths.

Motor racing legend Bobby Unser once said, ‘Nobody remembers the guy who finished second, but the guy who finished second’. As far as the 1973 Grand National is concerned, it would probably be fair to say that beyond the luckless Richard Pitman – who did, indeed finish second – a fair proportion of readers, of a certain age, remember the outcome.

The winner that day was, of course, the legendary Red Rum, who reeled in the front-running Crisp – who was conceding 23lb, but held a lead of 30 lengths, or more, at one point – in the shadow of the post to snatch what had appeared, for most of the way, an unlikely victory. The front pair were separated by three-quarters of a length, with a yawning 25 lengths to the third horse.

That horse was no slouch, either. It was, in fact, L’Escargot who, despite his ‘pedestrian’ name, had already won the Cheltenham Gold Cup twice, in 1970 and 1971. Indeed, L’Escargot would return to Aintree to win the Grand National, as a 12-year-old, in 1975, thereby becoming the first of just two horses to beat Red Rum in the National.

The course record for the Grand National was set in 1990 and, even allowing for the fact that the Grand National distance was shortened slightly in 2013, when the start position was moved forward, as a safety measure, is unlikely to ever be broken. Starting with the 2013 renewal of the Grand National, Jockey Club Racecourses, which owns Aintree Racecourse, announced that the course would be routinely watered, to provide going that was never again faster than ‘good to soft’.

Since then, the fastest winning time in the National was the 8 minutes 56.8 seconds recorded, on good to soft going, by the 2015 winner Many Clouds. That was, in fact, just the second sub-nine-minute winning time in the history of the world famous steeplechase, but still nowhere near the course record set by Mr. Frisk 25 years previously. Ridden by Marcus Armytage – coincidentally the last amateur jockey to win the National – Mr. Frisk had the advantage of running in the last-ever renewal contested on ‘firm’ going and came home in a time of 8 minutes 47.8 seconds. Barring drastic changes, his name is written, indelibly, into the record books.