Grand National News

Born on March 12, 1929, John Lawrence was the son of Geoffrey Lawrence, First Baron Oaksey, and adopted the name John Oaksey when he succeeded to the barony following the death of his father on August 28, 1971. He was the best amateur National Hunt jockey of his generation, famously winning both the Whitbread Gold Cup at Sandown and the Hennessy Gold Cup on Taxidermist, trained by Fulke Walwyn, in 1958 and suffering an agonising defeat in the Grand National, in 1963, when his mount, Carrickberg, trained by Donald Butchers, was caught close home by 66/1 chance Ayala. All told, Oaksey rode 205 winners during his career, but retired in 1975 as the result of injuries sustained in a crashing fall at now-defunct Folkestone.

By that stage, though, ‘My Noble Lord’, as Channel 4 racing colleague John McCririck would later christen Oaksey, already had his accomplished fingers in various different pies, as a journalist, broadcaster and innovator. In 1957, he began writing the ‘Marlborough’ column in the ‘Daily Telegraph’ and, the two years later, inherited the ‘Audax’ column in ‘Horse and Hound’. As a racing broadcaster, he worked for ITV and, later, Channel 4 from 1969 until 2002.

Oaksey was also instrumental in the creation of the Injured Jockeys Fund (IJF), which was established in 1964, after jockeys Stanley ‘Tim’ Brookshaw and Patrick ‘Paddy’ Farrell were both left paralysed after falls at Aintree in 1963/64. He was, in fact, one of the original trustees of the IJF and Oaksey House, a state-of-the-art rehabilitation centre in Lambourn, Berkshire, which opened in 2009, was named in his honour. Oaksey died, aged 83, on September 5, 2012, having suffered from Alzeiheimer’s disease in his later years.

It has often been said that there is almost always a story, sometimes even a fairy story, behind the winner Grand National and, true to form, in 1987, the story was all about Maori Venture and his nongenarian owner, Harry Joel Joel, generally known as ‘Jim’.

Trained in East Hendred near Wantage, Oxfordshire by Andrew Turnell, Maori Venture was a useful performer on his day, as he had demonstrated by winning the valuable Mandarin Chase at Newbury three years previously. However, by the time he lined up at Aintree on April 4, 1987, he was an 11-year-old with a reputation as less-than-fluent jumper. The prevailing ‘good’ going was also thought to be faster than ideal and, consequently, he was sent off at 28/1.

The official racecard of the day nonetheless warned punters that Maori Venture ‘could prove to be a lively outsider’ and, under stable jockey Steven Knight, he did just that. Jumping the final fence, Maori Venture was one of just of three serious challengers, the others being the long-time leader Lean Ar Aghaigh, ridden by 20-year-old Guy Landau, and The Tsarevitch, ridden by John White. From the ‘Elbow’, halfway up the run-in, the trio fought a titanic battle but, well inside the final furlong, Maori Venture took up the running and, surprisingly, sprinted clear to win by five lengths.

Unfortunately, having waited three decades to see his cherished racing colours – black, scarlet cap – carried to victory in the Grand National, Joel, 92, was on holiday in Cape Town, South Africa when Maori Venture passed the post. He did, however, fly back to Britain to greet his returning hero the following. He also announced his intention to bequeath the retiring Maori Venture to Knight in his will.

Described by the ‘Glasgow Herald’ as ‘one of the last of England’s greatest owner-breeders’, Joel inherited the Chiswick Bury Stud, near St. Albans, Hertfordshire, on the death of his father, Isaac ‘Jack’ Joel, in 1940. He famously won the 2,000 Guineas and the Derby with Royal Palace in 1967, before selling the property to the Spanish noblewoman, the Marquesa de Moratalla, in 1978. Joel died on March 23, 1992, aged 97.

The history books record that the 9-year-old New Zealand-bred gelding Moifaa won the 1904 Grand National, thereby becoming the first horse bred outside the British Isles to do so. Moifaa was owned by Spencer Gollan, trained by James Hickey, in Epsom, and ridden by the unheralded Arthur Birch, deputising for the injured Benjamin Ellis. A hard-pulling giant of a horse, who stood 17 hands high, Moifaa was sent off at 25/1 at Aintree but, despite a bad mistake at the fence before Becher’s Brook on the first circuit, was left alone in the lead at the same point on the second circuit, when Dearslayer fell. Thereafter, he was never seriously threatened and came home eight lengths ahead of Kirkland, who would return to Aintree to win the National the following year.

However, the bare facts aside, several popular myths, which have been perpetuated down the years, grew up around Moifaa. Legend has it that, en route from Auckland to Liverpool, the steamship on which Moifaa was being transported was wrecked in the Irish Sea and the horse was lost at sea, presumed dead. Neverless, he turned up alive and well on an unnamed island in the Irish Sea some days later, having purportedly swum, or been carried, 25 or 50 miles to safety and, once recovered, continued his journey to England.

Unfortunately, this story is hokum. Moifaa did travel to England aboard a steamship, SS Marere, but did so without incident; SS Marere was, in fact, sunk by a German U-boat during World War I. The confusion appears to have been caused by the fact another horse that ran in the 1904 Grand National, Kiora, had indeed been shipwrecked, not in the Irish Sea, but in the Atlantic Ocean, off Cape Town, South Africa, some years earlier. Kiora was presumed dead, but had, in fact, escaped the wreck and swum ashore at nearby Mouille Point, from which she was subsequently rescued. Kiora was an early faller in the 1904 Grand National but, in the romanticised version of the tale, the ‘shipwrecked’ horse became the winner, Moifaa.

In a nutshell, yes, he did, with three different horses in as many years. Arguably the greatest racehorse trainer of all time, Michael Vincent O’Brien, generally known by his middle name, excelled under National Hunt rules in the early years of his career. By the time he trained his first winner of the Grand National, Early Mist, in 1953, he had already saddled Cottage Rake to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup three times, in 1948, 1949 and 1950 and Hatton’s Grace to win the Champion Hurdle three times, in 1949, 1950 and 1951. He had also purchased Ballydoyle House, near Cashel, in Co. Tipperary, which he would subsequently establish as the foremost training centre in Ireland.

On March 28, 1953, Early Mist, owned by ‘Mincemeat Joe’ Griffin and ridden Bryan Marshall, made amends for falling at the first fence in the 1952 Grand National by winning ‘very easily, by 20 lengths. Carrying 11st 2lb, the eight-year-old led by 9 lengths at the final fence and only had to be pushed out with hands and heels to draw further away on the run-in. Twelve months later, on March 27, 1954, the same connections won the Grand National again, with the ten-year-old Royal Tan who, like Early Mist, had been notoriously difficult to train. He, too, led over the final fence, but was ultimately all out to hold the rallying Tudor Line by a neck.

Twelve months later still, on March 26, 1955, O’Brien completed his unprecedented hat-trick in the Grand National when Quare Times, a nine-year-old owned by Mrs. Cecily Welman and ridden by Pat Taafe, made light of conditions so testing that the Water Jump was omitted due to waterlogging to win ‘easily’ by 12 lengths. Tudor Line kept on at one pace to finish second for the second year running, while Early Mist and Royal Tan, carrying 12st 3lb and 12st 4lb, respectively, plugged on to finish ninth and twelfth.