TOUCHING THE VOID
30 years on, JON LEES recalls events at the ‘Grand National that never was’
THE Grand National is annually described as the world’s most famous horse race – but its 150th edition lives forever in infamy.
Those anniversary celebrations turned to farce 30 years ago amid chaotic scenes at the start when the tape malfunctioned.
The embarrassing attempt to recall the whole field went largely ignored and what ensued – in front of an estimated worldwide TV audience of 300 million – was a race dubbed ‘the Grand National that never was.’
The events that unfolded made British racing “the laughing stock of the world”, according to The Sporting Life headline.
Yet there is no trace of bitterness in Patrick Bancroft, recalling the brief moment he thought his lifetime dream of winning the Grand National had come true when his horse Esha Ness, trained by Jenny Pitman and ridden by John White, passed the post in first place.
“At the time it was the second fastest time ever, Esha Ness won with his head in his chest,” remembers Bancroft, 66, a Berkshire property developer. “He never had a tap with the stick, he trotted up really.
“He beat Cahervillahow, who went on and won the Whitbread next time out, but himself got disqualified. He was a damn good horse.
“Romany King was third, who was one of the favourites, and The Committee, who was fourth, had just won the Kim Muir. No one can tell me it wasn’t a good field. I was gutted because I knew the horse was in such good form.”
Esha Ness was one of seven horses to complete the course in 1993. The sense of mayhem was intensified by the presence on the track of animal rights protesters intent on disrupting the start of the race.
There were two false starts, the second called when the tape became wrapped around the neck of Richard Dunwoody, but only nine riders took any notice as the rest set off to jump the 30 fences.
BBC commentators continued to call the race, all the time reminding viewers that it would be declared void, and while many jockeys eventually heeded flag-waving officials to pull up after one circuit, a number went on all the way to the finish to a chorus of jeers and boos from the crowd.
Peter O’Sullevan told viewers: “This is one of the greatest disasters in the history of the National because here are these heroic competitors preparing to come to the second last fence believing the race is on. “It cannot possibly be an official race.” White, who had finished second in the Grand National on The Tsarevich in 1987, thought he was about to end his run of near-misses in the race which he had completed eight times.
“There were a lot of small things that led up to it all, like false starts, the horses being edgy, animal rights protestors,” says White, now 63. “And at one stage in the race my saddle slipped.
“I’d ridden a good few Nationals and always approached it the same way, focusing totally on my horse and putting everything else out of my head. You only got one chance at it and you had to be giving it your best shot.
“There was a lot of confusion. If I had thought something was wrong, I wouldn’t have jumped round four and a half miles – I would have pulled up as quick as anyone.
“When I crossed the line Dean Gallagher came up to me and said this might not be right, but even after that no one seemed to know what was going on. They didn’t want me to weigh in and my valet John Buckingham did his best to get me on the scales, in case the result stood, but the clerk wouldn’t let me.
“When it was voided I didn’t feel great! But there was nothing I could do.”
Bancroft says: “I just wheeled off the stands to see what was going on. There was bedlam, people shouting abuse, people annoyed it hadn’t happened. There was talk of starting it again, which was ridiculous because the ones that had finished had already run four and a half miles.
“We feared it would be called void but it did take a long time and the longer it goes on you just don’t know. But I never really expected them to say ‘result stands.’”
Bowler-hatted starter Captain Keith Brown needed a police escort to leave the track but the subsequent inquiry pinned the blame on the malfunctioning starting equipment and the flimsy tape, described by Pitman as “sixty yards of knicker elastic”.
Bancroft, who will be back at Aintree again this year, says: “There were never any sour grapes. I never ever would have done anything to harm the race. It’s not my style.
“I have the ultimate respect for Aintree. I love it – I’ve been every year ever since. I think it’s the greatest race in the world. It was just an unfortunate chapter that I happened to be involved with.”