1) AP McCoy finally wins at the 15th time of asking – 2010
Tony (or AP) McCoy is the most successful national hunt jockey in history, and holds pretty much every important record there is – most career wins (4,358), most times Champion Jockey (20, all in consecutive seasons) and most wins in a single season (289) amongst others. By 2010 he had won 14 of his 20 titles and was already classed as an all-time great, but there was one itch that he had not scratched. In 14 rides, several on the favourite, he had failed to win the Grand National.
All this was to change in 2010 when he mounted the Jonjo O’Neill-trained Don’t Push It in the big race. He nearly didn’t take the ride. Faced with a choice of four JP McManus-owned horses, McCoy had narrowed it down to two – Don’t Push It and Can’t Buy Time – but was struggling to decide. It took a toss of coin to put him on the former.
The omens were not particularly promising. Don’t Push It had won over the fences at Aintree in the previous season, but his performances in 2009/10 had been underwhelming. He had placed in three modest races before pulling up at Cheltenham in his final race before Aintree. The pre-race betting reflected a lack of any great enthusiasm from racing aficionados, and McCoy himself seemed unexcited by his mount. As the day approached the gelding was rated a relatively lowly 22/1 shot.
On the day itself the odds came down sharply. This was often the case with McCoy’s mounts, as the once-a-year punters were enticed by his star quality. When betting closed, McCoy once again found himself on the (joint) favourite with the odds having narrowed to 10/1.
The race itself was not an epic. McCoy kept his horse near the front throughout and came to the last with only Black Appalachi alongside him. A strong finish saw Don’t Push It cross the line with a five-length advantage. The win was clearly important to an emotional McCoy who told the assembled TV cameras, “I’m being a big wuss. It means everything to me to win the Grand National. I always thought I would win as I always believe that everything will happen.”
McCoy’s win at the 15th attempt captured the public’s attention in a way that horse racing rarely does. He went on to win that year’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year, the only jockey ever, attracting more votes than any of the previous four winners. I wonder how many were from those once-a-year betters who had made a few quid on him.
https://news.williamhill.com/horse-racing/sir-ap-mccoy-coin-toss-dont-push-grand-national
https://www.888sport.com/blog/ap-mccoy-grand-national-dont-push-it
2) Red Rum wins for an unprecedented third time in 1977
There is only one horse in history that has won three Grand Nationals. That horse is, of course, the legendary Red Rum, still the best known racehorse in British history.
Red Rum’s start in life was not particularly auspicious. Bred in Ireland for shorter distances, he performed decently in low-level races, but was not seen as having the potential to get to the very top. A big reason for this was that the horse suffered from pedalosteitis, a disease of the hoof. Despite this, a small-time trainer from Southport (15 miles from Aintree), Ginger McCain, saw something in the mare and bought it for 6,000 guineas for his patron, Noel Le Mare, a local businessman whose ambition was to own a National-wining horse. The ‘marriage’ between McCain and Red Rum was to prove to be one made in heaven.
McCain trained his horses on the Southport sands, where the salt water may have helped Red Rum’s feet. Otherwise, McCain was almost entirely focused on Aintree, and he found in Red Rum a horse that loved the course almost as much as he did. A natural jumper, the horse never fell in over 100 races (although he did unseat a rider at Haydock), and was superbly suited to the fences at Aintree. His Grand National breakthrough came in the classic 1973 race where he overhauled the exhausted Crisp with only meters to go. He followed it up with a more straightforward victory in 1974, becoming the first horse for almost 40 years to win two in a row. For good measure, he also won the Scottish Grand National that same year, the only horse ever to achieve the feat.
Red Rum continued to show his class at Aintree, finishing second in the big race in both 1975 and 1976, but when 1977 rolled around, most pundits felt he was too old at 12 years. Despite this he was still given top weight – 11 stone 8 lb – in the race and was installed amongst the favourites in the betting.
The race was not without drama. Seven horses fell at the first and a further nine had gone by fence 6, Becher’s Brook. Rank outsider, Boom Docker opened up a massive gap before refusing at the 17th, then favourite Andy Pandy went into another huge lead before falling at Becher’s second time around. Red Rum, unbothered by fallers and running his own race, seemed to see his chance then, and jumped into the lead. Plotting his way, yet again, over the Aintree fences, he never looked like losing and hit the finishing straight with a commanding lead. Under Tommy Stack in the familiar jersey with the yellow diamond on burgundy background, the legendary horse was cheered to the rafters. There has never been a more popular winner.
After retiring, Red Rum lived to a ripe old age of 30 and was buried at the winning post of the racecourse. He remains the best known racehorse in the UK and the undoubted GOAT of the Grand National.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/low/dates/stories/april/2/newsid_2466000/2466403.stm
3) Bob Champion recovers from cancer to win on Aldaniti – 1981
It’s not often that horse racing, even the Grand National, emerges from the sports pages to make front page headlines and dominate the Six O’Clock News. It’s even rarer that it becomes the subject of a best-selling book and a big budget movie. One such occasion was the fairy-tale victory of Bob Champion on Aldaniti in 1981.
It was an authentic story of triumph over adversity, in this case for both horse and jockey. Aldaniti had emerged as a top class steeplechaser a couple of seasons earlier, finishing third in the 1979 Cheltenham Gold Cup and second in the Scottish Grand National. His career, though, looked to be over almost as soon as it had started after a serious fall at Sandown in late 1979. Other horses might not have lived through such an injury, let alone recovered well enough to start racing again, but remarkably, after over a year off the track, Aldaniti made it back into training.
Champion’s story was equally unlikely. A good enough rider to finish third the 78/9 jockey’s championship, his career, indeed his life, looked to be over when at the age of 31 he was diagnosed with testicular cancer. He underwent surgery, lengthy hospitalization and chemotherapy before being given the all-clear some 191 days after his initial diagnosis.
Horse and jockey had been paired together in 1979 before both had had to undergo their respective battles for survival. Having recovered, they were reunited and entered for the 1981 Grand National. They were not outsiders, coming to the race as 10/1 second favourites, but completing the race and finishing in front would still be a mighty challenge for them.
Their race nearly came to an end at the first with a mistimed jump, but Champion clung on and they settled into midfield. They came to the front of the field around the 10th fence and managed to stay out of trouble all the way to the elbow into the finishing straight. Here, for the first time, they looked threatened as pre-race favourite Spartan Missile, ridden by 54-year-old amateur John Thorne (who was tragically to die within a year after a fall), mounted a charge. Aldaniti, though, had kept enough in his legs to maintain his lead and pass the winning post in first. Rarely if ever has there been such an emotional response to a horse race … people across the country, many with no great knowledge of the sport, were in tears.
Within no time at all the story had been turned into a best-selling book and a film, Champions, starring top British actor John Hurt as Champion. And who played the role of Aldaniti? None other than Aldaniti himself, now retired from racing and living it up as an equine celebrity.
4) Foinavon is last man standing and wins at 100-1 – 1967
Only two of the 16 fences at Aintree are named after racehorses. One, Valentine’s Brook, recalls a horse from the mid-19th century who appeared to jump the fence hind-legs first. The other is named after the most unlikely winner of the 20th century, the 100/1 outsider who won in 1967, Foinavon.
Bred in Ireland, Foinavon was given his name by one of his first owners, Anne, Duchess of Westminster. Named after a mountain on her Sutherland estate, he turned out to be considerably less illustrious than his similarly-named fellow stablemates, Arkle and Ben Stack. Ironically, though, he probably became more famous than either.
He was entered for the 1967 National without any great expectation. Trainer John Kempton fancied the ride, but could not make the weight. With owner Cyril Watkins unwilling to pay the bonus rate for the big race, the ride was turned down by three jockeys before being accepted by John Buckingham, a man who had never previously ridden in the National. Come race day, Foinavon was priced as a rank outsider at 100/1. The SP on the Tote was even higher, effectively giving the horse no chance. Owner Watkins clearly agreed with this judgement and did not even bother to attend the race.
The horse was considerably assisted in the race by his own mediocrity. Well behind the pace, he was able to side-step the most calamitous melee in the history of the race. It happened at Becher’s Brook on the second circuit, the 23rd fence of 30. There were still 28 of the 44 starters in the running and most of the field were in close proximity to each other. As they approached the fence, a riderless horse, Popham Down, suddenly veered right straight in front of the leading horses. Only one, Rondetto, managed to jump it, but he unseated his rider. All the other horses in the leading group either refused or ran into each other before the fence. Buckingham and Foinavon, some distance behind, were able to avoid the chaos and jump the fence while all others were stymied.
By the time the other riders were able to regroup and finally jump the fence, Buckingham and Foinavon were on their own and had opened up a 200m gap. They still had work to do, not least in negotiating the final seven fences, but they managed and passed the finish line with a 20 length advantage.
In Foinavon’s defence, his winning time was actually marginally faster than the winner from the previous year and would have beaten three other recent winners, so he was not a complete no-hoper. His victory did not lead to much more success, but he did win another race, at Uttoxeter. This was, strangely enough, another one in which he ‘did a Foinavon’. In a field of six starters, all the other five failed to finish.
https://www.grand-national-guide.co.uk/articles/foinavon
https://grandnational.horseracing.guide/1852/foinavon
5) Rachael Blackmore becomes the first woman to ride to victory – 2021
The Sex Discrimination Act was enacted in 1975 with the aim of protecting men and women from discrimination across a wide range of activities on the grounds of gender. One result of the new law was that it enabled female jockeys to compete in horseracing on an equal footing against men. Although women had competed against men for some years in other equine sports such as showjumping and three-day eventing, they had not been allowed to do so in what was seen as the more physically demanding sport of steeplechasing.
The pioneer was Charlotte Brew, who mounted Barony Fort in the 1977 Grand National. She managed to make it as far as the 27th fence before her horse refused. It took a further five years before a female jockey completed the course, Geraldine Rees finishing eighth and last on Cheers in 1982, then another 12 before Rosemary Henderson finished in the places, fifth on Fiddlers Pike in 1994.
Strangely there was then a 11-year gap before another woman rode in the race, but by the mid-2000’s there was a string of high-quality women jockeys, all more than capable of competing and winning against men. Nina Carberry, Katie Walsh and Bryony Frost all won Grade 1 races and rode 100s of winners. But, as Peter Scudamore and John Francome will testify, being a good jockey is no guarantee that you will ever win a Grand National.
It took until 2021 for Rachel Blackmore to finally put the unwanted record to rest. The Irish jockey had come off a spectacular Cheltenham Festival, with her six victories including the Champion Hurdle making her the leading jockey. Three weeks later at Aintree she saddled Minella Times, trained by Henry de Bromhead in Ireland, in the National. Her horse was well fancied, carrying a relatively light weight of 10 stone 3lb and fourth in the betting at 11/1.
Her race was a masterpiece in pacing. The 80/1 outsider Jett, under Sam Waley-Cohen, had gone out into a clear lead but Blackmore waited for him to come back to the field. Then with two fences to go she saw her moment, moving to the front of the field. Safely over the last, she was able to extend her lead in the final straight for a 6 1/2 length win. It was a first win as well for trainer Henry de Bromhead, who also saddled the runner-up, 100-1 outsider Balko Des Flos. But all the headlines were for Blackmore. With her talent it was probably only a matter of time before she won, but it was nonetheless a historic victory.
The only real disappointment for Blackmore was that the race was run, as the Cheltenham Festival had been earlier that year, in front of empty stands due to covid restrictions. It would doubtless have been more satisfying to have done it in front of a crowd, but surely that time will come before long.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/horse-racing/56701659
https://grandnational.horseracing.guide/21691/rachael-blackmore-first-female-jockey-win-national