Grand National News

The Grand National is arguably the most famous horse race in the world and, according to the BBC, attracts a global television audience of approximately 600 million. In the last decade or so, the Jockey Club, which owns Aintree Racecourse, has invested heavily in safety changes and, based on its own research and a number of independent studies, announced further measures to be implemented before the next running of the Grand National on April 13, 2024.

The previous safety limit of 40 horses, introduced in 1984, wasreduced to 34, with a view to reducing the risk of falling. Likewise, in a effort to reduce the speed at which horses approach the first fence, the obstacle moved 60 yards closer to the start. In 2013, the start was moved 90 yards closer to the first fence, thereby reducing the overall race distance. Nevertheless, according to the Jockey Club, the average speed of horses approaching the first fence has increased, rather than decreased, over the past decade, prompting further action. A standing start was also be implemented, as it is now for all races over the Grand National fences. Other infrastructure changes included reducing the height of the eleventh fence, an open ditch, from 5′ to 4’10” and levelling off the landing side to further reduce the height of the drop.

As far as the horses are concerned, participants in the 2024 Grand National needed to have achieved an official handicap rating of 130, rather than the previous 125, and those prone to jumping errors were more closely scrutinised by the so-called Grand National Review Panel to determine their suitability. The formal parade, in which horses were led by handlers, was also dispensed with and horses simply cantered in front of the grandstands on their way to the start.

Compared with the other ‘named’ fences on the Grand National Course – that is, Becher’s Brook, The Canal Turn, Valentine’s Brook and The Chair – the fence now known as ‘Foinavon’ is really nothing to write home about. Indeed, at 4’6” high and 3’ wide, it is one of the smallest obstacles on the course. Of course, the positioning of the fence, immediately following the precipitous drop on the landing side of Becher’s Brook, can set a trap for the unwary, but the obstacle itself is otherwise unremarkable.

Neverthless, the apparently innocuous fence, which is jumped twice during the Grand National – as the seventh fence on the first circuit and the twenty-third on the second – was the site of one of the most memorable series of events in the history of the great race. To recap, briefly, in 1967, the riderless Popham Down, who had unseated rider at the first fence, refused at, and ran down the twenty-third fence, causing a mêlée. The ensuing carnage put paid to the chances of all bar one of the remaining runners, leading commentator Michael O’Hehir to exclaim, ‘And now, with all this mayhem, Foinavon has gone off on his own!’

Trained by John Kempton and ridden by Grand National debutante John Buckingham, Foinavon was a bona fide 100/1 outsider, but, gifted a huge lead, was always going to take some catching. Several of his rivals set off in hot pursuit, but Foinavon made the best of way home and crossed the line 15 lengths ahead of his nearest pursuer, favourite Honey End, ridden by Josh Gifford. In the aftermath of the debacle, O’Hehir suggested that the seventh fence could one day be named ‘Foinavon’ in honour of the unlikliest of winners and, in 1984, the Aintree Racecourse Executive officially did just that.

The Grand National did not become known as such until 1947, but was officially inaugurated, as the ‘Liverpool Grand Steeplechase’, in 1839. In 175 runnings of what has become, arguably, the most famous horse race in the world, a total of 13 horses aged 12 years and upwards have won.

Of the senior age group, 12-year-olds have been, by far, the most prolific, with ten wins in total, although just one – courtesy of Amberleigh House, trained by the legendary Donald ‘Ginger’ McCain, in 2004 – since the turn of the century. Two 13-year-olds, but no 14-year-olds, have prevailed and the ‘granddaddy of them all’ was Peter Simple, who recorded his second win in the National as a 15-year-old in 1853, making him the oldest winner in history.

The venerable Peter Simple aside, the first teenager to win the National was Why Not who, on March 30, 1894, despite his advancing years and the welter burden of 11st 13lb, was sent off 5/1 joint favourite at Aintree and duly obliged. He led narrowly over the final fence and ran on well under pressure to win by 1½ lengths and a head from Lady Ellen and Wild Man From Borneo, who were receiving 31lb and 18lb respectively; according to the ‘Daily Telegraph’ of the day, his victory ‘was due entirely to the jockeyship of Arthur Nightingall’.

Notwithstanding an honourable mention for Vics Canvas, who jumped the last upsides before finishing third behind Rule The World in 2016, the last 13-year-old to win the Grand National was Sergeant Murphy in 1923. Ridden by the ill-fated Captain Geoffrey ‘Tuppy’ Bennet – who, tragically, suffered fatal injuries at Wolverhampton the following December – Sergeant Murphy strode out well over the final two fences to become, jointly, the second-oldest winner in the history of the National.

The late Joshua Thomas ‘Josh’ Gifford died in the early hours of February 9, 2012, at the age of 70, after suffering at his yard in Findon, West Sussex, where he had trained for 33 years. As a trainer, Gifford enjoyed success at the highest level, as he had previously, as a jockey, and saddled a total of 1,586. His finest hour in the training ranks, though, came on April 4, 1981, when he saddled Aldaniti, ridden by Bob Champion, to win the Grand National and create one of the greatest sporting stories in history.

Aldaniti had sustained a career-threatening, and possibly life-threatening, leg injury at Sandown Park in November 1979, which meant he was confined to his box for six months and off the racecourse for over a year. In fact, that was just the latest in a series of injuries so severe that, without the intervention of owner Nick Embiricos, he may well have been humanely euthanised. However, he was nursed back to form sufficiently to be sent off 10/1 second favourite for the Grand National, behind only 8/1 favourite Spartan Missile, a dual winner of the Aintree Foxhunters’ Chase and, arguably, the greatest hunter chaser in history.

Champion, for his part, had sought medical advice on a swollen testicle, after being kicked by a horse, in July 1979, only to be diagnosed with testicular cancer. Given only a 30%, or 40%, chance of survival, Champion, 31, immediately embarked on powerful, extremely aggressive programme of chemotherapy, of which he later said, ‘You felt horrendous; you just felt sick 24 hours a day. A lot of people having my treatment gave up, and I nearly did one day too.’ He didn’t, though, and having completed the programme eventually recovered sufficiently to resume his job as stable jockey to Gifford, whom he later described as ‘the most loyal trainer there’s ever been’. The ‘fairytale’ story of Aldaniti, Champion and Gifford – which, in real life, reduced his trainer to tears – was immortalised by the 1984 film ‘Champions’, starring John Hurt as Champion as Edward Woodward as Gifford.

Aldaniti aside, Gifford also handled several other top-class horses, including Deep Sensation, winner of the Queen Mother Champion Chase in 1993, Bradbury Star, winner of the Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase at Sandown in 1992, narrowly beaten in both Sun Alliance Chase that year and the King George VI Chase in 1993, and winner of the Mackeson Gold Cup in 1994, among others. Perhaps rather surprisingly, he never won the National Hunt Trainers’ Championship, although he did finish runner-up behind David Elsworth in 1987/88.

Born in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire on August 3, 1941, became apprenticed to trainer Cliff Beechener at the age of 11 and rode his first winner on the Flat at Brimingham Racecourse in 1956, when still not yet 15 years old. Major wins on the Flat included the Manchester November Handicap and the Chester Cup, but, after fighting a losing battle with the scales, Gifford was forced to turn his attention to National Hunt racing, with no little success. Indeed, despite being a direct contemporary of Fred Winter, Terry Biddlecombe and Stan Mellor, he formed a successful partnership with Captain Ryan Price, which, by the time of his retirement in 1970, had yielded a total of 642 winners and four National Hunt Jockeys’ Championship titles, in 1962/63, 1963/64, 1966/7 and 1967/68.

As a jockey, Gifford never won either of the premier steeplchases, the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Grand National. However, he may well have won the latter on favourite Honey End in 1967, but for the now-infamous pile-up at the fence now known as ‘Foinavon’ on the second circuit. Honey End made up ground, hand-over-first, over the remaining fences, but Foinavon – a bona fide 100/1 outsider, who had been turned down by three jockeys beforehand – was not for catching and past the post 15 lengths ahead.