HISTORY OF THE GREATEST RACE
1835 Aintree stages its inaugural jumps meeting 1839 The first official Grand National, then named the Grand Liverpool Steeplechase. A crowd of 40,000 saw 5-1 favourite Lottery win and Captain Martin Becher christening the now-famous brook after a fall.
1847 Matthew records the first Irish-trained victory on the day the race is officially named the Grand National. 1927 Ted Leader rides Sprig to victory in the first National to be covered by a BBC radio commentary.
1934 Golden Miller becomes the only horse to win the Grand National and the Cheltenham Gold Cup in the same season.
1956 Devon Loch and jockey Dick Francis, looked certain to give the Queen Mother victory when clear on the run-in, but sudddenly sprawled flat on the ground yards from the winning post, allowing ESB to win.
1967 The year of the horrific pile-up at the 23rd. John Buckingham and outsider Foinavon avoid the melee and gallop on to a 100-1 win. 1977 Red Rum rewrites the record books with his historic third victory. ‘Rummy’ had five runs, with three wins and two seconds, from the age of eight to 12.
1979 Rubstic is the first Scottish-trained winner. 1981 Aldaniti, nursed back from careerthreatening injury three times, wins a fairytale National ridden by Bob Champion, who fought, and beat, cancer.
1982 Dick Saunders, at the age of 48, becomes the oldest winning jockey on Grittar. Geraldine Rees becomes the first woman to complete the course, riding Cheers. 1983 Doubts about the National’s future are ended when the Jockey Club, helped by public donations, buys the course. Corbiere’s victory sees Jenny Pitman become the first woman to train the winner.
1987 Jim Joel becomes the oldest winning owner at 92 when Maori Venture wins a thrilling race from The Tsarevich. 1993 A void race. There is chaos after a second false start as most of the field continue. John White passes the post first on the Jenny Pitman-trained Esha Ness, only to discover the race has been declared void.
1994 Minnehoma, owned by comedian Freddie Starr, gives multiple champion trainer Martin Pipe his first National victory, and 51-year-old grandmother Rosemary Henderson completes the course on her own horse Fiddlers Pike, who finishes fifth.
1997 A bomb hoax causes Aintree to be evacuated, but the race is staged two days later and is won by Lord Gyllene.
2001 Red Marauder and Smarty are the only horses to put in clear rounds in a race run in atrocious conditions. 2008 Comply Or Die allows David Pipe to join
his father, Martin, in the record books as a National-winning trainer. 2010 Don’t Push It, trained by Jonjo O’Neill and owned by JP McManus, provides Tony McCoy with his first success at the 15th attempt.
2011 Donald McCain, son of Ginger, follows in the footsteps of his fourtime National-winning father as he sends out Ballabriggs to glory. 2012 Neptune Collonges is the first successful grey since Nicolaus Silver in 1961.
2019 Tiger Roll is the first horse since Red Rum to win back-to-back Nationals as he wins for trainer Gordon Elliott, who was landing his third National.
2020 For the first time since World War II, the race is cancelled — because of Covid-19. 2021: Rachael Blackmore becomes the first female jockey to win the race as she steers the Henry de Bromhead-trained Minella Times to victory.
Noble Yeats wins at 50-1 ridden by amateur Sam Waley-Cohen.