Brush up on an assortment of interesting Grand National Chase trivia and numbers.
Trivia
- Despite the British Royal Family’s passion for horseracing, a horse owned by the Royal Family has only won the Grand National on one occasion. In 1900 Ambush II won the Grand National for the Prince of Wales. The Queen Mother almost won a Grand National in 1956 with Devon Loch, however whilst in the lead Devon Loch inexplicably lay down, handing victory to ESB.
- During World War One the Grand National was moved from its traditional site at Aintree and was instead run at the site of the modern day location of Gatwick airport. The history of the Grand National is so deeply rooted in Aintree that these races are often excluded from the Grand National record books.
- In 1977 Charlotte Brew became the first female jockey to compete in the Grand National when she entered the Grand National on Barony Fort. It took another 46 years for a female jockey to win the race, with Rachael Blackmore winning the race in 2021. Several female trainers have trained Grand National winning horses, the first being Jenny Pitman with Corbiere in 1983.
- The racecourse at Aintree is acknowledged as the toughest in National Hunt racing, with the height of the fence on the take-off side often higher than the height on the landing side. This feature also makes the course uniquely dangerous and in recent years several of the more challenging fences have been modified for safety.
- In 1997 the Grand National had to be rescheduled when the race organisers received a bomb threat from the IRA. The race was postponed for two days, and the crowd that attended the event was significantly smaller than is usually the case. Eight years later the Grand National was rescheduled again, this time to accommodate the marriage of Prince Charles to Camilla Parker Bowles.
- The 1993 Grand National was the most chaotic in the history of the event. The starting tape malfunctioned and a false-start was called, yet only 9 jockeys were aware of this and the other 30 set off down the Aintree racecourse and ran the full race. Despite a race being run, the result was declared null and void costing Esha Ness his win.
By Numbers
| 150000000 | The amount in pounds sterling bet on the Grand National every year by the British public |
| 70000 | The numbers of spectators who travel to Aintree to watch the Grand National |
| 7242 | The distance in meters run during the Grand National |
| 1934 | The year Golden Miller became the only horse to date to win the Grand National after winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup |
| 1836 | The year The Duke won the Grand Liverpool Steelplechase, the race generally recognised as the first Grand National |
| 600 | The number of people in millions believed to watch the Grand National on television every year |
| 528 | The fastest ever Grand National winning time in seconds |
| 494 | The distance in yards that the racehorses who have survived two lengths of the Grand National Circuit have to cover on the run-in to the finishing post |
| 66 | The most horses to contest a Grand National, a record set at the 1929 Grand National |
| 49 | The average speed in km/h of the runners competing in the Grand national |
| 48 | The age of the oldest Grand National winning jockey, Dick Saunders |
| 24 | The number of times the ante-post favourite in the betting markets has gone on to win the Grand National |
| 23 | The highest number of horses ever to finish a Grand National |
| 20 | The number of races run during the Grand National Meeting |
| 16 | The number of fences located on the Grand National circuit at Aintree racecourse |
| 13 | The number of mares who have won the Grand National |
| 7 | The fence named after Foinavon, the last 100/1 winner of the Grand National |
| 6”9′ | The drop on the landing side of the infamous Becher’s Brook fence |
| 5”3′ | The height of The Chair, the tallest fence jumped during the Grand National. The Chair is one of two fences jumped only once during the Grand National |
| 4 | The number of racehorses that have won the Grand National at odds of 100/1 |
| 4 | The number of Grand National winning jockeys who were killed in action during the Second World War |
| 3 | The most wins by a horse in the Grand National, a record held by Red Rum |
| 2 | The fewest horses to finish a Grand National |
| 1 | The number of Grand National winners owned by the British royal family |
