The Grand National is often billed as
the most unpredictable race in the world. However, for all the
vagaries of a race typically contested by a huge field and run over
4¼+ miles and 30 idiosyncratic fences, the Grand National winner has
been returned at a treble-figure price just five times in 180 years.
The first 100/1 winner of the National,
Tipperary Tim, didn’t come along until 1928, 89 years after the
first ‘official’ running of the race. Trained by Joseph Dodd and
ridden the amateur William Parker “Bill” Dutton, Tipperary Tim
won by virtue of all the other 41 starters, bar one, failing to
complete the course. The eventual second, Billy Barton, parted
company with jockey Tommy Cullinan at the final fence, but was
remounted, at the second attempt to finish a distance behind the
winner.
Lo and behold, having waited nearly a
century for a 100/1 winner of the National, the next one arrived the
very next year, in 1929. That year, the ditch at the Canal Turn was
filled in, but the winner, Gregalach, nonetheless faced 65 rivals in
the largest field ever assembled for the Grand National. Trained by
Thomas Leader and ridden by Robert Everett, made stealthy headway to
tackle Cheltenham Gold Cup winner, and favourite, Easter Hero at the
second-last fence and win by 6 lengths.
The 1947 Grand National was shrouded in
tangibly thick fog and won by another 100/1 outsider, Caughoo,
trained in Ireland by Herbert McDowell and ridden by little-known
jockey Edward Dempsey. Caughoo came home 20 lengths ahead of his
nearest rival, Lough Conn, ridden by Daniel McCann, who subsequently
accused Dempsey of concealing his mount in the fog near the Melling
Road on the first circuit and rejoining on the second. After a
fracas, and a court case, photographic evidence eventually revealed
that Caughoo had, in fact, jumped Becher’s Brook twice, so must
have completed two full circuits of the course.
The seventh fence on the Grand National
Course – also, of course, the twenty-third fence – has, since
1984, been officially called ‘Foinavon’. Foinavon won the 1967
Grand National at 100/1 and is commemorated for being the only horse
to avoid a melee caused by a loose horse, the aptly-named Popham
Down, at the fence which now bears his name. With all the remaining
runners falling, being brought down or refusing, Foinavon was left
well clear, eventually winning by 15 lengths.
The fifth, and final, 100/1 outsider to
win the National, Mon Mome in 2009, won fair and square, by 12
lengths, on a sunny day and was one of seventeen finishers. His
performance appeared no fluke, but he was settling an old score for
his trainer, Venetia Williams, who had been knocked unconscious when
her mount, Marcolo, a 200/1 outsider, fell at Becher’s Brook on her
only attempt in the National as an amateur rider, 21 years
previously.
