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Portrait of The Grand National

General knowledge · Sport

The Grand National

First run 1839

Sport — horse racing

Britain's most famous steeplechase, run each spring at Aintree near Liverpool over two circuits, thirty fences and about four and a quarter miles. It is a handicap, which is why outsiders can win, and its fences — Becher's Brook, the Canal Turn, The Chair — are landmarks in their own right. The race is watched by a far wider audience than ordinary racing, and its mishaps are as well remembered as its winners.

How to spot them

  • ▸Aintree, Liverpool; two circuits of thirty fences; a handicap chase in April
  • ▸Becher's Brook, Valentine's Brook, the Canal Turn, The Chair, the Melling Road
  • ▸Red Rum; Foinavon at 100/1; the race that never was; the bomb-scare Monday
  • ▸Long-distance questions about weights, fallers and 100/1 shots

Key facts

Becher's Brook, the Canal Turn and The Chair

Becher's is named after Captain Martin Becher, who sheltered in the brook in 1839; The Chair is the tallest fence on the course

Red Rum won it three times in the 1970s and was second twice (1973, 1974, 1977)

Trained by Ginger McCain on Southport sands; buried by the winning post at Aintree

Foinavon won at 100/1 in 1967 after a loose horse caused a pile-up at the 23rd fence (1967)

The fence now carries his name; his jockey was John Buckingham

Declared void in 1993 after two false starts and a tangled starting tape (1993)

Thirty of the thirty-nine runners set off; Esha Ness 'won' a race that officially never happened

Postponed to the Monday in 1997 after coded IRA bomb warnings emptied the course (1997)

Around 60,000 people were evacuated; Lord Gyllene won when the race was run two days later

First run in 1839, when the winner was a horse called Lottery (1839)

Ridden by Jem Mason; the race was then known as the Grand Liverpool Steeplechase

I Am Maximus regained the title in 2026, the first horse since Red Rum to do so (2026)

Trained by Willie Mullins and ridden by Paul Townend; he also carried top weight, the first since Red Rum in 1974

Quick-fire facts

  • •Run at Aintree Racecourse, Liverpool, over about 4 miles 2½ furlongs, with thirty fences jumped over two circuits — sixteen on the first, fourteen on the second
  • •It is a handicap, so the best horses carry the most weight; the maximum field was cut from 40 to 34 runners in 2024
  • •Becher's Brook is named after Captain Martin Becher, unseated there in the first running of 1839
  • •Red Rum is the only horse to win three times: 1973, 1974 and 1977
  • •In 1928 only two horses completed the course; the 100/1 outsider Tipperary Tim won after Easter Hero straddled the Canal Turn
  • •Rachael Blackmore became the first woman to ride the winner, on Minella Times in 2021
  • •Mon Mome won at 100/1 in 2009; other 100/1 winners include Foinavon (1967) and Tipperary Tim (1928)
  • •The Chair, jumped only once per race, stands 5 ft 2 in with a 6 ft ditch in front of it
  • •The race was not run during the First World War at Aintree, and between 1941 and 1945 it was not held at all

Drill it — 10 cards

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Sources