Category: Grand National

The National Course at Aintree consists of 16 unique, spruce-topped fences, 14 of which are jumped twice during the Grand National itself. However, during the rest of the year, four other races are run over the National fences. Two of them, the Topham Chase and the Foxhunters’ Open Hunters’ Chase – which, under normal circumstances, is restricted to amateur riders – are run over 2 miles 5 furlongs during the Grand National Festival in early April each year. In both cases, the races start before what is the second-last fence on the final circuit of the Grand National, such that 18 fences are jumped in all.

Similar comments apply to the Grand Sefton Chase, which is staged in late November or early December. However, the fourth and final race of the year over the National fences, the Becher Chase, is run over 3 miles and 2 furlongs in December. By necessity, the Becher Chase starts after Valentine’s Brook and involves jumping 21 fences in all. As in all the races run over the National fences, including the Grand National, runners bypass The Chair and the Water Jump on the final circuit and head, instead, up the famously long, 494-yard run-in.

Nicky Henderson was assistant trainer to Fred Winter – who is the only person to win the Grand National twice as both jockey and trainer – for four years before taking out a training licence in his own right in 1978. Nowadays based at Seven Barrows in Lambourn, Berkshire, Henderson has been

British Champion National Hunt Trainer six times, most recently in 2019/20.

Henderson has an excellent record at the Cheltenham Festival, where he was won the Leading Trainer Award nine times, including shared titles in 1987, 1992 and 1993. Indeed, his career total of 70 winners makes him the second most successful trainer in the history of the March showpiece, behind only Willie Mullins.

However, for all his success elsewhere, Henderson has yet to win the Grand National. His first ever runner, Zongalero, ridden by Bob Davies, finished second, beaten 1½ lengths, behind Rubstic in 1979, but in the intervening years Henderson has saddled a further 42 runners, none of whom has fared any better. The Tsarevitch, ridden by John White, was a 5-length runner-up to Maori Venture in 1987 but, otherwise, two minor placings – for Classified in 1986 and Brown Windsor in 1990 – is all Henderson has to show for his efforts. Interestingly, the Master of Seven Barrows is also yet to win the Irish, Scottish or Welsh Grand National.

The short answer is yes, he did. On April 10, 1999, Paul Carberry won the Grand National on the 9-year-old Bobbyjo, owned by Robert Burke and trained by his father, Tommy. Of course, Tommy Carberry had ridden L’Escargot, the last Irish-trained horse to win the Grand National before Bobbyjo, in 1975, so victory for Bobbyjo was especially memorable for the Carberry family.

Bobbyjo had won the Irish National at Fairyhouse, under Carberry, a year earlier, but his only win since had come in his preparatory race for the Grand National, a two-mile handicap hurdle at Down Royal in March, under Carberry’s younger brother, Philip. At Aintree, Bobbyjo was 14lb out of the handicap but, in the face of sustained market support, was sent off 10/1 co-third favourite of three, behing Fiddling The Facts, trained by Nicky Henderson, and Double Thriller, trained by Paul Nicholls.

The market support proved to be justified because, having tracked the leaders for much of the way, Bobbyjo was switched to the outside to deliver his challenge at the final fence and was driven clear on the run-in to beat Blue Charm by 25 lengths. Bobbyjo never won again and was humanely euthanised, as an 11-year-old, in 2001. Reflecting on his career, Paul Carberry said, ‘He was a very easy horse to ride. He would settle for you and you could do anything you wanted with him. He was also very genuine and he jumped brilliantly.’

The first female jockey to ride in the Grand National was 21-year-old Charlotte Brew who, in 1977, partnered her own horse, the 12-year-old Barony Court. A safe, if rather slow, jumper Barony Court had qualified for the National by finishing fourth in the fourth in the Foxhunters’ Open Hunters’ Chase, over the Grand National fences, the previous season. Although her mount was an apparent no-hoper, the significance of her participation in the celebrated steeplechase, following the enactment of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, made Brew front-page news beforehand.

Set off at 200/1, Barony Court was still standing at the fourth-last fence, where he refused, not once, but four times, before Brew finally gave up. Unfortunately, after the race, Charlotte Brew and Barony Court were rather overshadowed by Tommy Carberry and Red Rum, who beat Churchtown Boy by 25 lengths to record his historic third win in the National, after his previous victories in 1973 and 1974. In fact, as Red Rum was being led towards the winners’ enclosure, Brew was spotted by Sir Peter O’Sullevan, in the vicinity of the Melling Road, hacking Barony Court back towards the grandstands.