How many times has the Scudamore family won the Welsh Grand National?

Scheduled to take place annually on the day after Boxing Day, prestigious Welsh Grand National is the highlight of the National Hunt calendar in Wales. The gruelling, three-and-three-quarter-mile contest was transferred to Chepstow Racecourse in Monmouthshire in 1949 and, since then, three successive generations of the Scudamore family have either ridden or trained winners.

Patriarch of the Scudamore dynasty, the late Michael Scudamore, is probably best remembered for winning the Grand National on Oxo in 1959, but nonetheless also won the Welsh Grand National as a jockey. In 1957, he prevailed on the hard-pulling, former point-to-point Creeola II, who was the first of four Welsh Grand National winners for legendary trainer Fred Rimmell. It was a different world back this, this was long before the likes of online pokies real money.

On his retirement from the saddle in 1966, Scudamore, too, became a trainer and continued in that vein until 2008, when he passed on his licence to his grandson, Michael Jr.. From the family yard, Eccleswall Court in Bromash, Herefordshire, Michael Jr. continued the family tradition, sending out Monberg Dude to win the 2012 renewal of the Welsh Grand National – actually postponed until January 5, 2013 – under Paul Carberry.

Of course, Peter Scudamore, son of Michael Snr., was a National Hunt jockey for 15 years, amassing a career total of 1,687 winners and winning the jump jockeys’ title eight times between 1981/82 and 1991/92. He rode 792 winners for 15-time champion trainer Martin Pipe, three of them – Bonanza Boy (1988, 1989) and Carvill’s Hill (1991) – in the Welsh Grand National, having already won the race on Run And Skip, trained by John Spearing.