Category: Grand National

Has Nicky Henderson ever won the Grand National?

The short answer is no he hasn’t; neither has he won the Irish, Scottish or Welsh Grand National. That said, Henderson is, without question, one of the leading National Hunt trainers of his generation. Formerly assistant trainer to the legendary Fred Winter, Henderson began training in his right in 1978 and has since saddled over 3,000 winners, including 70 at the Cheltenham Festival. He was won the trainers’championship six times, most recently in 2019/20, the Cheltenham Gold Cup twice and the King George VI Chase three times.

However, for all his success elsewhere, victory in the Grand National remains elusive. Despite over four decades of trying, Henderson has achieved no better than second place. In fact, he secured that position with his first ever runner in the National, Zongalero, who was beaten 1½ lengths by Rubstic in 1979 and, again, with The Tsarevitch, who was beaten 5 lengths by Maori Venture in 1987. Nevertheless, Henderson remains philosophical about his lack of succes in the Grand National. Interviewed prior to the 2021 renewal – in which he saddled, OK Corrall, who was pulled up at the fence before Becher’s Brook on the second circuit – he said, ‘I’m not saying I would retire on the spot if I won it, as I wouldn’t, but it would be awfully nice to win the race.’

Which horse holds the course record for the Grand National?

The course record for the Grand National was set in 1990 and, even allowing for the fact that the Grand National distance was shortened slightly in 2013, when the start position was moved forward, as a safety measure, is unlikely to ever be broken. Starting with the 2013 renewal of the Grand National, Jockey Club Racecourses, which owns Aintree Racecourse, announced that the course would be routinely watered, to provide going that was never again faster than ‘good to soft’.

Since then, the fastest winning time in the National was the 8 minutes 56.8 seconds recorded, on good to soft going, by the 2015 winner Many Clouds. That was, in fact, just the second sub-nine-minute winning time in the history of the world famous steeplechase, but still nowhere near the course record set by Mr. Frisk 25 years previously. Ridden by Marcus Armytage – coincidentally the last amateur jockey to win the National – Mr. Frisk had the advantage of running in the last-ever renewal contested on ‘firm’ going and came home in a time of 8 minutes 47.8 seconds. Barring drastic changes, his name is written, indelibly, into the record books.

Who are the only current trainers to have won the Grand National more than once?

The record for training the most Grand National winners is held, jointly, by George Dockeray, Fred Rimell and Donald ‘Ginger’ McCain, who all saddled four winners apiece. Of course, all three of them are deceased and, of current, active trainers, just two have saddled more than one Grand National winner.

The first of them was Nigel Twiston-Davies who, in 1998, saddled the Welsh Grand National winner Earth Summit to victory at Aintree and, four years later, repeated the feat with Bindaree. Indeed, his second victory in the Grand National renewed his zest for National Hunt racing at a time when he was winding down his training career. After a poor season, in which he would eventually saddle just 35 winners – his lowest seasonal total for a decade – Twiston-Davies was adamant he was retiring. Even the day after Bindaree won the National, he said, ‘I never ever wanted to be a trainer. That happened by accident. So I wouldn’t be giving up a career I always wanted to do.’ However, by his own admission, ‘…Bindaree changed everything.’

The second current trainer who has won the Grand National more than once is Gordon Elliott, who has recently returned from a six-month ban for bringing the sport of horse racing into disrepute. Elliott’s faux pas has been well chronicled elsewhere, but he became the youngest ever trainer of a National winner when saddling Silver Birch to victory in 2007 and added wins two and three with back-to-back victories for Tiger Roll in 2018 and 2019.

Who founded Aintree?

Of course, nowadays, Aintree Racecourse is synonymous with the most famous steeplechase in the world, the Grand National. However, the race that became the Grand National, the ‘Grand Liverpool Steeplechase’, was not run for the first time until February, 1836, nearly seven years after Aintree staged its inaugural Flat meeting in July, 1829.

Horse racing at Aintree was the brainchild of local hotelier and sports promoter, William Lynn who, in 1829, approached William Molyneux, Second Earl of Sefton with a view to leasing the land on which the racecourse now stands. Molyneux sanctioned the use of his land for horse racing and, following the construction of a grandstand, the first race, the Croxteth Stakes, was run on July 7 the same year.

The venture proved highly successful and supported, financially, by Molyneux, the Jockey Club and others, Aintree Racecourse flourished. National Hunt racing was introduced in 1835 – although the National Hunt Committee would not be formed until three decades later – and the following year, drawing inspiration from an existing race, the Great St. Albans Steeplechase, Lynn staged his own version. The Grand Liverpool Steeplechase was still known by its original title until 1947, when it was renamed the Grand National, but the word ‘national’ was first used in connection with the 1839 renewal, which is now generally considered the first ‘official’ running of the Grand National.

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