A is for Aintree
Home of ‘the National’ since February 26,
1839. In those days horses had to jump stone walls and tear across ploughed
fields. Today, they simply have to gallop full pelt for 4 ½ miles while tackling
thirty massive hedges and an array of hidden ditches.
B is for Booze
Beer intake is just as grand as the race
itself with more than 120,000 pints and 75,000 bottles of ale quaffed at the 40
public bars around the course. Weirdly, they also sell 9,000 balls of ice cream
and 300 kilos of cheese.
C is for Champion
In late 1979, jockey Bob Champion was told
he had cancer and given months to live. Around the same time the horse Aldaniti
was close to being retired through serious leg trouble. Yet both beat their
ailments and formed a perfect partnership for the 1981 National, racing up the
final straight to beat Spartan Missile by four lengths. There was barely a dry
eye left in the country.
D is for Drunkenness
In 1875 Irish amateur Thomas Pickernell was
so plastered he lined up facing the wrong way and had to be pointed in the
right direction by another rider. Halfway around his horse Pathfinder wanted to
give up but through a mixture of blind luck and drunken anger Pickernell
managed to force his mount to the finish and won by half a length.
E is for Easter Hero
Huge fetlock twisting pile-ups are a major
part of the National’s appeal. Yet few crashes can rival the chaos caused by
Easter Hero when he took a header at the Canal Turn in 1928 and only two horses
made it to the finish – and one of them had to be re-mounted. Eventual winner
Tipperary Tim raced in at 100-1.
F is for Formula 1
Jockeys aren’t the only sore-arsed midgets
to risk their neck at Aintree. In 1954 a motor-racing circuit was built around
the horse track and from 1955 to 1962 it staged five British Grand Prix’s.
Racing legend Sir Stirling Moss won three, and Jim Clark and Wolfgang von Trips
one apiece.
G is for Ginger McCain
The name Red Rum is etched firmly into the
history of the National, thanks to his record of three wins and two second
places from 1973 to 1977. Yet Rummy wouldn’t have stood a chance without
eccentric Ginger who took him for a dip in the sea before every race. To prove
it wasn’t a fluke, Ginger also won the national in 2004 with Amberleigh House.
H is for Hedges
It takes 75 ground staff a month to make
the Grand National fences out of a huge mound of Lake District spruce. At 5
feet 2, The Chair is the tallest and most fearsome thanks to a six-foot wide
ditch on the take-off side.
I is for Iron Duke of Alburquerque
As a young boy the real-life Spanish aristo
saw a film of the race and declared: “I will win that race one day”. He nearly
died trying. On his first attempt in 1952, the Duke fell off at the sixth fence
and woke up in Royal Liverpool Infirmary with a cracked vertebra in his neck.
He survived unscathed from a fall in 1963, then in 1965 broke a leg after his
horse collapsed from under him. In 1973 he was sent spiraling into orbit after
his stirrup broke mid-race and in 1974, he entered the race in a plaster cast
after he broke his collarbone in training – yet amazingly finished eight (and
last) aboard Nereo: "I sat like sack of potatoes and gave the horse no
help" he said afterwards. In 1976, the Duke was trampled and suffered
multiple fractures that placed him in a coma for two days.
J is for James Wynne
On the morning of the 1862 race, Irish
jockey James Wynne received news that his sister had suddenly died the day
before. Rather than step down Wynne decided to race in her honour but suffered
a nasty fall at The Chair. Wynne later died from internal injuries and to this
day is the only jockey to be killed from wounds suffered in the race.
K is for Kiwi
When New Zealander Spencer Gollan entered
Moiffa into the 1904 race he had no idea what fate would bring. As the ship
carrying the horse sailed into the Irish Sea it was suddenly hit by a violent
storm and sunk without trace. Moiffa was thought lost but the next day a fisherman
heard a strange noise coming from an uninhabited island and found the
thoroughbred on a beach. News of Moiffa’s amazing escape soon spread – the
horse had swum almost 50 miles to safety – and Gollan decided it was still fit
enough to enter the race, which it promptly won.
L is for Lottery
Aptly this is the name of the first horse
to win the National at Aintree in 1839. In the same race Captain Martin Becher
took a nosedive into the brook at the sixth fence and it has been called
Becher's Brook ever since.
M is for McCoy
Tony McCoy has been the Champion Jockey for
the last 13 years and ridden more than 3000 winners. Yet he’s never won the
Grand National.
N is for Nationwide Outburst
After guiding Rough Quest to a length and a
half victory over Encore Un Peu in 1996, jockey Mick Fitzgerald was asked by
Des Lynam what it felt like to win. On live TV Fitzgerald replied: “After that,
sex is an anti-climax”.
O is for Odds
Only four of the last 33 favourites have
won the national. But that doesn’t mean you’ll make a fortune by backing a rank
outside as only four horses have won with odds of 100-1 – and none with
anything higher.
P is for Popham Down
100-1 shot Foinavon may have stumbled home
to win the 1967 National but the real star of the show was riderless Popham
Down, who ran across the front of fence 23 just as the lead horses were
starting to jump. Foinavon was so far behind the rest of the field he could
simply skirt around the angry mass of remounting jockeys and race home in the
clear.
Q is for Quids
Lots of them. The Total prize fund for the
race is £900,000, with £506,970 going to the winner. Bookies also take in
around £500million in bets every year.
R is for Runners
The 1929 race saw 66 horses charge down to
the first fence. Yet today only 40 horses are allowed to take part, despite the
fact that hundreds are entered from all corners of the globe. So while you may
back a blind, three-legged mule that refuses at the first, just remember that
it’s still one of steeplechasing’s elite.
S is for Spectators
The 70,000 racegoers that crowd into Aintee
every year are joined by an estimated TV audience of 600million viewers in 140
countries. Domestically, the race grabs a share of around 66% of the UK's TV
audience.
T is for Terrorists
Many an Irish punter shed a tear in 1997,
when the race was abandoned after a pair of coded bomb threats were received
from the IRA. 60,000 spectators, jockeys, race officials and local residents
were immediately evacuated – including Des Lynam live on TV. The race was
eventually run on the Monday and won by Lord Gyllene.
U is for Unluckiest Loser
Theories about crowd noise, strange
shadows, slipped turf and even a heart attack have been put forward. Yet nobody
still knows why the Queen Mother’s horse Devon Lock suddenly jumped onto his
belly as he was romping home to victory in the 1956 National – the year of the
Queen’s coronation. The Royal Family has never got so close again.
V is for Void
1993 will always be known as the national
that wasn’t. First the start was held-up by a bunch of tree-hugging animal
activists who broke onto the track. Then the starting tape got wrapped around
Richard Dunwoody’s neck just as the field set off. A false start was
immediately called but 30 of the 39 starters didn’t get the massage and tore
across the fences as normal. Chaos rapidly ensued as word spread and horses
came to a halt at random points all over the course. Seven of them eventually
made it to the finish with John White on Esha Ness crossing the line to be told
the miserable news that he had won, er, nothing.
W is for Winners
Picking a winner at the National is pretty
much impossible. But according to the stats your best hope is to back a
nine-year-old from Ireland carrying less than 11 stone in weight. Never –
repeat, never – go for anything grey, female or French. And if the going’s
heavy then just shut your eyes and stick a pin in the list of riders as a grand
total of 16 horses have finished the last three ‘heavy’ races out of 120
starters.
X is for X-Ray
Horses and jockeys both risk their necks in
the National, so it’s no surprise that on race day the in-field is crammed full
of vets and doctors. The on-site equine hospital also has a huge horse x-ray
unit and solarium and is serviced by a fleet of horse ambulances with special
equine oxygen masks.
Y is for Youngest
In 1938 Bruce Hobbs became the youngest
ever winner of the race when he crossed the line on the back of Battleship at
the tender age of 17.
Z is for Zoedone
Most people spend their race winning on
champagne and women but after scooping £800 on the Cesarewitch in 1883,
Bohemian diplomat Count Charles Kimsky went one better and bought Zeodone to
have a crack at the National. After a brief bit of training he took on the pros
and won in the second slowest time ever recorded. The Count came back two years
later for another crack only for Zoedone to be mysteriously poisoned by a
rival.
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