The British Grand National is regarded one of the most important sports occassions in the UK next to the F.A.Cup, The All British Tennis Championship ( Wimbledon ) and the Ashes Test Series.
The Aintree National is an infamously hard race and one of the hardest held anywhere worldwide which is, ironically, one the things that makes it most exciting. What starts out as a list of roughly 150 horses slowly gets whittled down over a period of 3 months so that only forty deserving contenders remain. It is these excellent horses that toil it out over more than 4 miles of Aintree racetrack in an attempt to earn one of the most coveted sporting titles National Winner.
Due to this standing the Grand National has been added to the list of state Protected Sport Events these events must be shown on earthly T.V. Channels and the broadcast rights can t be sold domestically to Satellite broadcasters like Sky, Setanta Or Wire Channels. there were 161 unusual winners who now ornament the history books and as the 2009 Aintree Grand Countrywide draws ever closer it is only fitting that we have a look back at the explorers that have made this one of the best races anywhere on the planet. 1839 saw the 1st ever Grand National race and its opening winner was the aptly named Lottery . Weighing in at a fair 9 12 and ridden by Gem Mason this beauty was one of the favorites at five / one and, rather unsurprisingly, took the longest of any winning horse to complete the course at 14m 53s.
It would seem that slow and steady wins the race. there were some horses that have won the Grand National twice and they include Peter Simple in 1849 and 1853, The Colonel in 1869 and 1870, The Lamb in 1868 and 1871, Manifesto in 1897 and 1899 and eventually Reynoldstown in both 1935 and 1936. In spite of the successes of the above horses, just one has ever one it 3 times and that unique honour goes to the one and only Red Rum .
The best Grand National horse of all time, Red Rum, bred to be a runner, left the breeding gurus scratching their heads by turning into the only three time winner in the history of the race. And if that wasn t enough he was also 2nd in 1975 and 1976. So from the 1st ever horse to win to the most recent horse to take the title, Comply or Die rode home a joint fave at seven / one in the 2008 race. This Irish horse and his jockey, Timmy Murphy, held off a powerful challenge from King Johns Castle to take victory by 4 lengths giving his tutor, David Pipe, and his owner, David Johnson, one of the most remarkable days of their lives. Today women jockeys are permitted to enter, the best finish by a girl in the race was in 1994 when Rosemary Henderson came 5th.
In 1956 one of the most dramatic Grand National incidents took place when Devon Loch, 45 metres from the finishing line and in the lead, suddenly appeared to jump and fall over. Devon Loch, owned by the Queen Mother and riden by Dick Francis apparently got spooked by the noise of the crowd as he romped toward the finishing line and simply stopped running. According to Francis he was a nervous horse and there was nothing anybody could have done to stop it. What did the Queen Mother say? Well, that s racing
This incident is not unique however. In 1903, Ambush II, owned by King Edward VII was running in a field of 23 runners and was taking a great lead when he fell at the last fence. The race then came down to two similarly named horses Drumcree and Drumree until Drumree just stopped mid race and against his jockey s protests simply refused to move and paved the way for Drumcree to take the title!
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Get more information on this great race at http://www.grand-national.me.uk plus details on picking a winner.
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