While the 2026 Grand National can hardly be said to be just around the corner (it’s 7 months away) the months soon pass. The inevitable process of picking a winner (which will be the talk of every pub goer, and office worker around the time of the race) will soon begin. The sweepstakes too, where you never know if you’re going to be handed a near ‘sure thing’ or a 100-1 outsider. The beauty of the Grand National is that ‘anything can happen’. That moto has bitten bookies hard on occasion, and that’s always a punter pleasing outcome. Let’s take this time to look back at a few Grand Nationals from the past where punters came out on top!

First we’ll start with a classic couple of performances from yesteryear.  After his victory in the 2018 Grand National (and successes at the Cheltenham Festival) Tiger Roll went into the 2019 National as firm favourite (at 4/1). Prime time to enlist the services of a bet broker perhaps. As short as he was, due to his form and following he was still the obvious choice to give it his all and come out on top, and so many did just that. The bookies would have made a killing if he’d lost, but inevitably he romped home ahead of 66/1 shot Magic of Light. Bookmakers admitted it was a “horror result.”

Along the same lines of repeat winners, after winning the Grand National in 1973 and 1974 Red Rum went into the 1977 event at 9-1. A favourite with punters, they piled in at those odds, with bookmakers again facing heavy loses as result. Even with his earlier noteable victories (23/1 in 1973, 11/1 in 1974), Red Rum was extremely well backed, meaning those wins were not exactly good news for the bookies either.

Moving from favourite to outsiders now, because there’s nothing more thrilling than pulling a rabbit out of the hat with a huge odds winner. With there being such a long history of the Grand National, there are several examples of such magic moments. We could go back to 1967 with Foinavon for instance, a 100-1 winner, winning as result of an infamous pile-up race when almost every horse fell or was stopped at the 23rd fence. There’s always a few on the look out for a long shot win, and those who did so here, were quids in as result.

Last but not least, in more recent years (2009) Mon Mome is yet another example. Not exactly taking off in the betting Venetia Williams’ runner bolted up regardless. There were plenty having an each way flutter on the horse purely for the big odds (100/1), and they weren’t disappointed. Bookmakers experienced surprisingly heavy losses because of the sheer volume of small-stake bets, which of course adds up. So while sometimes it’s clearly the bookies day, there are plenty of times where the punters give them a well deserved run for their money, or even a bet based black eye!

At the time of his retirement, on medical advice, in December, 1999, Richard Dunwoody was the most successful National Hunt jockey in British history, with 1,699 domestic winners to his name. The Ulsterman won the National Hunt Jockeys’ Championship three times, in 1992/93, 1993/94 and 1994/95, and also had the distinction of winning the three ‘flagship’ races in the National Hunt calendar, namely the Champion Hurdle, Cheltenham Gold Cup and Grand National.

As far as the Grand National is concerned, Dunwoody won the Aintree showpiece twice, on West Tip in 1986 and Miinnehoma in 1994. Having won what is now the Ultima Handicap Chase at the Cheltenham Festival, under Dunwoody, in 1985, West Tip was sent off 13/2 joint-favourite for the Grand National the following month, but fell at Becher’s Brook on the second circuit when in the lead. Nevertheless, the partnership returned to Aintree the following year to set the record straight; a well-supported 15/2 second favourite, West Tip tackled the leader, 66/1 shot Young Driver, approaching the Elbow and stayed on well to win by two lengths.

Eight years later, Dunwoody was back in the winners’ enclosure at Aintree, having proved the epitome of coolness under pressure on the enigmatic 11-year-old Miinnehoma. Owned by comedian Freddie Starr and trained by Martin Pipe, Miinnehoma raced prominently throughout, but Dunwoody delayed his effort until the last minute, cruising past the weakening leader, Moorcroft Boy, on the run-in, before asking his mount for maximum effort to repel the renewed effort of confirmed mudlark Just So in the closing stages. Miinnehoma eventually won by 1¼ lengths, with Moorcroft Boy a further 20 lengths further back in third place. Dunwoody later confessed that he felt he had ‘gone too soon and almost given the race away’.

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.