Horses To Win Grand National
Despite being a ‘little rat of a thing’, to quote owner Eddie O’Leary, Tiger Roll confirmed his status as one of the best long-distance horses of all time with a second Grand National victory at Aintree.
- Horses To Win Grand National Championship
- Horses To Win Two Grand Nationals
- Grey Horses To Win Grand National
- Horses To Win Grand National Finals
The nine-year-old belied a 11-05 handicap to win by more than two lengths from Magic of Light, and in doing so he became the first back-to-back Grand National winner since Red Rum in 1973-74.
Tipperary Tim – 100/1. One of the top underdogs in the history of the Grand National can also claim. Finding A Winner. The first criteria is the Runner’s age. The Aintree Grand National fences require a level of maturity from the horses that usually comes with age. When it comes to form, you need to look closely at how a horse has been performing for the last.
As we discussed in our piece on Grand National betting favourites, it’s a rare occurrence for the favourite with the bookies to actually win the great race: only three horses in the past 20 years had achieved the feat prior to Tiger Roll’s win.
- Frisk strode home to win the 1990 Grand National. This was the 144 th meeting at Aintree and he is famous for completing the two and half mile course in the quickest time possible. The horse took less than eight minutes and fifty seconds to complete the course.
- In fact the average odds of a winning Grand National horse are around 20/1. Seven winners had at least four seasonal runs before going on to win the Aintree spectacular. The only three who had less were Ballabriggs in 2011, One For Arthur in 2017 and Tiger Roll in 2019. They had all run three times.
- The 1967 Grand National was the scene of one the most notorious pile ups in Grand National history. Foinavon had odds of 100/1 to win the race.
Here’s a look back at Tiger Roll’s triumph, and a guide to the other horses that have achieved consecutive Grand National successes.
List of Back to Back Grand National Winners
| Horse | Trainer | First Win (SP) | Second Win (SP) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tiger Roll | Gordon Elliot | 2018 (10/1) | 2019 (4/1 F) |
| Red Rum | Ginger McCain | 1973 (9/1 JF) | 1974 (11/1) |
| Reynoldstown | Noel Furlong | 1935 (22/1) | 1936 (10/1) |
| The Colonel | R. Roberts | 1869 (100/7) | 1870 (7/2 F) |
Tiger Roll (2018 & 2019)
Despite some outstanding form at Cheltenham, there are those who had wagered that Tiger Roll might be too small to really excel in the Aintree showpiece.
But he kicked those notions to the kerb with a powerhouse display in 2018. Running prominently throughout, jockey Davy Russell gave his charge a little squeeze with three to jump and just held on for the ride as his horse went through the gears.
And it was that ability to find an extra 10% when all around him were tiring that fired Tiger Roll to victory in 2019 as well.
A big jump at the penultimate fence got him into the equation, and that trademark final burst could not have been timed better as he pushed clear and rode on well to send the Aintree faithful into raptures. The 4/1 favourite was incredibly well backed, as you can imagine!
Red Rum (1973 & 1974)
One of the most iconic Grand National wins came in 1973 when Red Rum, who was some 15 lengths behind leader Crisp after the final flight had been navigated, somehow got up to take the line in first place.
Ginger McCain’s horse had gone off as a 9/1 joint favourite with Crisp, but punters looked set to be disappointed as Red Rum struggled to get into the picture.
But Crisp, the top weight who was carrying a hefty 23lb more than his nearest challenger, tired badly, and Red Rum was able to get home by less than a length in a time of 9m 01s, a record which would stand until Mr Frisk’s phenomenal effort in 1990.
Unsurprisingly, the horse was given a rather significant weight gain in 1974; some 23lb to be precise.
And that’s why Red Rum wasn’t actually the favourite with the bookies for the ’74 National, with Scout and L’Escargot both more widely fancied.
But that made scarcely any difference as the horse defied his handicap to charge home comfortably from L’Escargot in second and secure his place in the history books.
It was a win that left one punter dancing in the aisles….albeit 43 years later! He found a winning betslip at his home for the ’74 National in 2017, and after discovering it had yet to be cashed trousered a handy £130 from William Hill.
Red Rum would go on to compete in 5 Grand Nationals in total, winning his historic third in 1977 after finishing runner-up in the other two runnings.
Red Rum’s Five Grand Nationals
| Year | Position | Age | Weight | Start Price | Jockey |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | First | 8 | 10-5 | 9/1 | Brian Fletcher |
| 1974 | First | 9 | 12-0 | 11/1 | Brian Fletcher |
| 1975 | Second | 10 | 12-0 | 7/2 F | Brian Fletcher |
| 1976 | Second | 11 | 11-10 | 14/1 | Tommy Stack |
| 1977 | First | 12 | 11-8 | 9/1 | Tommy Stack |
Reynoldstown (1935 & 1936)
Horses To Win Grand National Championship
Prior to Red Rum, you have to go back to before the Second World War to find the previous back-to-back Grand National champion.
Horses To Win Two Grand Nationals
As you can imagine, details are a little thinner on the ground about those two victories, but in 1935 the horse was just one of four finishers and was a general 22/1 selection.
Trained by Major Noel Furlong, the 1935 win saw his son, Frank, in the saddle, before a year later amateur jockey Fulke Walwyn took the spoils.
That second triumph saw Reynoldstown overcome a 14lb handicap gain to get home as third favourite at 10/1.
The Colonel (1869 & 1970)
To emphasize the extent of the achievement of back-to-back Grand National champions, you have to go back more than 200 years to find the fourth and first horse to accomplish the feat.
We don’t know a huge amount about the Colonel’s two wins, but his first came in 1869 at odds of 100/7, with George Stevens the winning jockey.
And the horse returned a year later as a 7/2 favourite to successfully defend his crown, with Stevens picking up his fifth and final National win; a record which still stands to this day.
George Stevens’ Five Grand National Wins
| Year | Horse | Trainer |
|---|---|---|
| 1856 | Freetrader | William Holman |
| 1863 | Emblem | Edwin Weever |
| 1864 | Emblematic | Edwin Weever |
| 1869 | The Colonel | R. Roberts |
| 1870 | The Colonel | R. Roberts |
Could Tiger Roll Make it a Grand National Hat-Trick?
So two consecutive wins is history-making enough in itself, but could Tiger Roll achieve something that has ever been done before: the hat-trick of Grand National titles? According to Michael O’Leary, probably not.
“I feel no pressure to go back and try to win a third time,” he said in the aftermath of his horse’s triumph. “Tiger Roll isn’t Red Rum – he’s Tiger Roll.”
Red Rum did go on to win a third Grand National in 1977, but no horse has ever won three editions of the Aintree showpiece consecutively. Tiger Roll would almost certainly go into the 2020 edition as the top weight, and for a small horse that would, at the very least, hamper his jumping ability.
That said, there are plenty who remember when the Gigginstown Stud man said that Tiger Roll wouldn’t run in the National this year following his Cheltenham Festival exploits, so maybe there is still some life in this story just yet.
Such is Tiger Roll’s brilliance that other major races must surely be on the radar of his connections, with the Gold Cup at Cheltenham one potential avenue for the nine-year-old. Again, O’Leary isn’t exactly raving about the idea.
“We are not tempted by the Gold Cup – he is a small horse, the Gold Cup is such an attritional race,” he said.
“He has won four times at Cheltenham, and if he were to go back and win five times at Cheltenham – what more do you want from the horse? I think at that stage I would mind every precious hair in his body.”
Whatever way his owners choose to go, Tiger Roll has no cemented himself I National Hunt racing folklore with his exploits, and he joins an exclusive club of back-to-back Grand National winners which, in the modern era, there is only one other member of.
McLain Ward and Blossom Z, owned by Wyndmont, Susan Heller, and McLain Ward, flew to the top of the podium for a victory in the $50,000 CaptiveOne Advisors 1.50m National Grand Prix on Saturday, March 6, in the International Arena at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center (PBIEC).
Week 8 of the Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) sponsored by Premier Equestrian, concludes on Sunday, March 7, with the $37,000 Hermès Under 25 Semi-Final Grand Prix opening the day at 8 a.m. in the International Arena due to weather on Saturday night. The afternoon features the $214,000 Grand Prix CSIO4*, presented by JTWG, Inc., on Sunday, February 7, with a new start time of 1:30 p.m. All feature classes will be available live and on-demand on the livestream.
A total of 25 combinations challenged the 1.50m track set by Steve Stephens (USA) and Nick Granat (USA) on Saturday afternoon. The first round consisted of 16 jumping efforts with a total of nine qualifying to return for the shortened second round.
First to go of the nine returning combinations, Ben Maher (GBR) and Kalinka De Kalvarie, owned by Poden Farms, set the pace for the remainder of the competition with a clear effort in 36.200 seconds.
Fifth in the returning order, McLain Ward rose to the occasion, topping the time set by Maher, with Blossom Z, an 11-year-old Zangersheide mare by Balou Du Rouet x Cleopatra Z, with a clear effort in 33.022 seconds.
“She’s a quick horse naturally,” said Ward. “She’s typically the fastest one in the first round. She was the fastest in our class the other day with the last fence down, so she’s quick across the ground. The numbers [of strides] set up nicely for me today. With my size stride she was able to keep coming, and Ben [Maher] couldn’t do one less but had to do it slower.”
Grey Horses To Win Grand National
The jump-off became a battle of the world’s best as the second ranked rider in the world, Martin Fuchs, rounded out the podium aboard Conner 70, a 10-year-old Holsteiner gelding by Connor 48 x Cosimo owned by Thomas Fuchs. The pair came close to the runner-up position, sliding into third with a time of 36.205, just five-thousandths of a second behind Maher, who sits fifth in the world rankings.
Ward, currently ranked 14th in the world, bought the winning mare in mid-December and their partnership continues to blossom.
“She’s a special horse,” said Ward. “She’s a really good jumper and very careful but she’s also a little bit spicy and likes to go her own way. It has taken us a little bit of time to try to figure each other out, and I think it’s starting to turn the corner in a good direction. She has a lot of ability, a little bit of personality, and we just need to meet our minds.”
The process to get to this point has been through some trial and error along with small adjustments in their preparation of the mare for the show. Ultimately, those adjustments have paid off with a victory on Sunday.
“We’ve played around with some different bits,” he said. “We’ve also adjusted how we work her on the flat. She just doesn’t have all the experience in the world so it’s a matter of stepping her up, letting her digest things, and then she grows from it.”
Full Results: $50,000 CaptiveOne Advisors 1.50m National Grand Prix
1. BLOSSOM Z: 2010 Zangersheide mare by Balou Du Rouet x Cleopatra Z
MCLAIN WARD (USA), Wyndmont, Susan Heller and McLain Ward: 0/0/33.022
2. KALINKA DE KALVARIE: 2010 BWP mare by Mr Blue x Acord
BEN MAHER (GBR), Poden Farms: 0/0/36.200
3. CONNER 70: 2011 Holsteiner gelding by Connor 48 x Cosimo
MARTIN FUCHS (SUI), Thomas Fuchs: 0/0/36.205
4. WINDSOR GREY: 2011 Westphalian gelding by Cristallo II x Calido I
TIFFANY FOSTER (CAN), Kent Farrington, LLC: 0/0/36.282
Horses To Win Grand National Finals
5. FEE DES SEQUOIAS Z: 2009 Zangersheide mare by Figaro du Ri d’Asse x Saccor
JUAN MANUEL GALLEGO (COL), Juan Manuel Gallego: 0/0/37.852
6. LIGHT BLUE 3: 2012 Oldenburg gelding by Light On x Cayenne
EMILY MOFFIT (GBR), Poden Farms: 0/0/38.788
7. IRCOS IV: 2008 BWP gelding by Nabab De Reve x Echo De Thurin
KARL COOK (USA), Helen Signe Ostby: 0/0/39.260
8. MARCIANO MVF: 2011 Zangersheide gelding by Stakkato x Leberoi H
HEATHER CARISTO-WILLIAMS (USA), Stephanie Bulger: 0/4/37.149
9. UPPER: 2008 Selle Francais gelding by Diamant de Semilly x Nadir de San Patrignano
DAVID OBERKIRCHER (USA), Southfields Farm LLC: 0/18/57.535
10. BABAR: 2012 Warmblood gelding by Picadilly Tame
RYAN SASSMANNSHAUSEN (USA), Maeve O’Sullivan: 1/76.234