GRAND NATIONAL THAT NEVER WAS
With tomorrow’s calendar showpiece called off we relive the infamous false start race
THIS is the greatest disaster in the history of the Grand National.
Iconic commentator Peter O’Sullevan’s succinct words summed it up perfectly.
Tomorrow there will be no running of the world’s greatest steeplechase due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Instead of being the centre of the sporting universe with 50,000 people in attendance on Merseyside and images of the place being beamed into homes across the globe, the usually bustling racecourse will merely be a big, soulless field that sits next to Aintree Industrial Estate.
There will be no winner on the honours board yet there’s also no winner for 1993. And that’s despite the fact horses completed the course in the 147th staging and finished.
Esha Ness, a 50-1 shot, crossed the line first. Sadly for rider John White and his charge their efforts counted for absolutely nothing.
At the time it was the biggest calamity in the history of the race. It may still be for some. Even more so than this year and, arguably, even more so than the 48-hour delay four years later due to the IRA bomb threat.
Esha Ness and White “won” a race that never was. It may have been 27 years ago yet the memories remain vivid. The joy for White was all too brief. He doesn’t hold grudges but he does have the memories. They won’t fade.
Especially the moment when just seconds after his phenomenal effort jockey colleague Dean Gallagher took him from euphoria to dismay.
White said: “The first I knew about it was when I pulled up.
Dean said, ‘Sorry John this is not right’. Straight away after going by the post.
“About 25 minutes later I knew for sure. That doesn’t sound long but when you don’t know what’s going on it’s a long time.”
From start to finish there was trauma in the air with events beginning to turn sour when animal rights protesters charged the track in the direction of the first fence just before the off. Starter Keith Brown was on the ball. He held the tape but the horses, pumped up and ready to go, were getting edgy.
Suddenly, it got unruly as the competitors clambered towards that threatened starting tape. That was caught.
Disastrously, when there was a third attempt to let them go it was still not satisfactory and men with recall flags further down the track did not react. Or were not noticed quickly enough.
As 30 of the 39 challengers thundered away they were blissfully unaware they were starting an event that was already stopped.
For years Brown took the flak. A former cavalry officer, he’d started several Nationals in the past, but he’d never do another. In fairness he was due to retire in any case but it still hurt. He needed a police escort from the racecourse as 50,000 punters raged.
He sai: “It took such a long time to get the horses to the start line and then they were delayed by animal rights protesters. After holding them for 19 minutes at the start the jockeys were shouting.”
White and Esha Ness were dynamite. They posted the second-fastest time in National history to that date. But it meant nothing. White’s anguish was palpable.
He had ridden a Cheltenham Festival winner three years earlier and went on to train horses in his native Ireland but the biggest moment of the lot was taken from his grasp.
White said: “I had no inkling during the race that there was something wrong. If I thought there was I’d have definitely pulled up because we could be starting again.
“I wouldn’t blame anyone. There are a lot of people to blame but it’s history.”