HOW FOINAVON’S DRAMA UNFOLDED
As a youngster watching a grainy black and white television, it soon became obvious this momentous occasion.
O’hehir reeled off the names of the horses that ‘a right pile up’ brought to a standstill like an auctioneer at a cattle market after the rider-less and aptly named Popham Down ran down was
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athe fence. Avoiding the carnage as he was so far behind, Foinavon, partnered by John Buckingham, skipped over the remaining seven fences and held off the remounted Honey End. Foinavon went off unbacked at 100-1 and was also unconsidered by his winning connections.
His trainer John Kempton had gone to Worcester that day where he rode Three Dons to victory.
Admittedly, Foinavon fortunate winner.
But to his credit it takes a brave horse to negotiate those unforgiving fences without any company.
He once carried the Arkle colours of (right) was
athe Anne Duchess Of Westminster. Both horses take their name from a mountain on the Duchess’s estate in Scotland.
Pat Taaffe gave an insight into Foinavon, who shared a stable with Susie the goat, when he fell during a race. After Taaffe was back on his feet, he remarked: “Foinavon was still lying down and munching the grass.”
Buckingham, the third-choice jockey on account of the owner Cyril Watkins refusing to pay the extra fee for riding in the National, believed he was going well before the melee and considered he was very much in with a live chance. Buckingham rode in three more Nationals and completed
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IN ASSOCIATION WITH on each occasion
1971.
He became a popular valet looking after former champion riders, John Francome, Richard Dunwoody and Peter Scudamore.
There might have been confusion for everybody in that unforgettable National, but not for O’hehir.
He admitted he was unsure of Foinavon’s colours before the race as they had been changed and checked with Buckingham as to the horse he was riding.
And Foinavon will never be forgotten as the 23rd Grand National fence is named in his honour after O’hehir proposed the idea. before retiring in