Tag: the grand national

Which are the most valuable races in Britain?

The most valuable horse races in Britain naturally include some of the most prestigious, and most coveted, contests on the horse racing calendar. Traditionally the fourth Classic of the season, the Derby Stakes, or Derby, for short, run over a mile-and-a-half at Epsom, is currently the most valuable horse race run in Britain. The 2024 Derby, held on Saturday 1st June will be the 245th time the race has been held, with with a total prize money of £1,500,000 accorting to the Jockey Club.The prize fund breakdown for the winner and other places last year was as follows:

 

1st – £885,781.84

2nd – £335,819.24

3rd – £168,065.82

4th – £83,720.52

5th – £42,016.46

6th – £21,086.33

 

Elsewhere on the Flat, the Ebor Handicap, run over a mile-and-three-quarters at York, received a massive boost in prize money when Sky Bet took over sponsorship of the race in 2018 with a total prize fund going from £500,000 to £1 million; making it the most valuable race of its kind, not only in Britain, but in the whole of Europe. However, post covid the race is less valuable once more back at £500,000 accoridng to the York racecourse website (as is the prize money offered for the Sky Bet City of York Stakes held on the same day).

In 2020, two Group One races at Royal Ascot, namely the Prince of Wales’s Stakes, run over a mile-and-a-quarter, and the Diamond Jubilee Stakes, run over six furlongs, were due for an increase in prize money, to £1 million from £750,000 and £600,000, respectively. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, prize money at the Royal Meeting was amended, such that all eight Group One races were run for £250,000. The prize money for the Prince of Wales’s Stakes and Diamond Jubilee Stakes are now back up to £1,000,000 though with £567,100 going to the winner, so that will be the 2024 purse on offer.

Generally speaking, National Hunt racing is less lucrative than Flat racing, in terms of the prize money on offer. Nevertheless, while not quite on a par with the Derby, the Grand National, run over four miles and two-and-a-half furlongs at Aintree, offers total prize money of £1 million, making it the most valuable steeplechase run in Europe, in 2024 £561,000 went to the winner, I am Maximus.

Did a stone wall used to be an obstacle in the Grand National?

Although still known, at the time, as the Grand Liverpool Steeplechase, the first ‘official’ running of the race that would become the Grand National is generally accepted to have taken place at Aintree Racecourse in Merseyside, North West England on February 26, 1839. In the earliest, pioneering days of the race, runners really did go ‘out into the country’, where they encountered an assortment of natural obstacles, including banks, ditches and watercourses. On their return to the ‘racecourse proper’, they did, indeed, face a 16′ wide stone wall, which is immortalised in a painting by contemporary British artist Charles Hunt.

The stone wall fell in, and out, of favour over the next few years before it was finally replaced, permanently, by the Water Jump – which remains the final fence on the first circuit and is jumped only once during the Grand National – in 1847. In 1840, Lottery, who had won the inaugural Grand National the previous year, took a terrible fall at the stone wall, bringing down the favourite, The Nun, and two other horses. The stone wall was replaced, temporarily, by an artificial brook, in 1841, but was reintroduced in 1843, at the behest of Irish participants. It was replaced by an artificial brush hurdle in 1844, before being reinstated in 1845 and being replaced, once again, by the same obstacle in 1846.

Which are the ‘named’ fences on the Grand National Course?

The Grand National Course at Aintree consists of 16 fences, 14 of which are jumped twice during the Grand National – so 30 jumps in total, but five of them, namely Becher’s Brook, Foinavon, Canal Turn, Valentine’s Brook and The Chair, have become famous, or infamous, in their own right. Indeed, four of the ‘named’ fences – not counting fence 3, the first open ditch fence, Westhead – come one after another in rapid succession.

The most famous of them all, Becher’s Brook, is the sixth fence on the first circuit and is named after Captain Martin Becher, who took shelter in the brook on the landing side after being unseated from his mount, Conrad, in the inaugural Grand National in 1839. The fence, itself, stands 4′ 10″ high, but a steep drop on the landing side, which is between 5″ and 10″ lower than the take-off side, makes Becher’s Brook a notoriously difficult obstacle.

Becher’s Brook is immediately followed by Foinavon, an unremarkable, 4′ 6″ high fence – in fact, one of the smallest on the Grand National Course – but, nevertheless, the scene of a dramatic melee during the 1967 Grand National. The 100/1 outsider, and eventual winner, Foinavon, was the only horse to jump the fence at the first time of asking and, in 1984, it was renamed in his honour.

The next fence, the eighth on the first circuit, is the Canal Turn, which takes its name from its position, near the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and the fact that horses must negotiate a sharp left turn immediately after the fence. Next comes Valentine’s Brook, originally known simply as the Second Brook, but renamed after Valentine, the horse that negotiated the fence in bizarre, twisting fashion, apparently landing hind feet first, during the 1840 Grand National. Fence 11 is called Booth, named after fence builder, John Booth.

Last, but by no means least, of the ‘named’ fences, The Chair is the fifteenth, and penultimate, fence on the first circuit and is jumped just once. Originally known as the Monument Jump, The Chair stands 5’3″ high and has a 6′ wide ditch on the take-off side, making it the tallest (by two inches) and broadest fence on the Grand National Course. It’s a fence that has prooved challening for many a horse. The following fence ‘Water Jump‘, which has a large pool of water in front of it, is a joy in comparison.

Should you be looking for a more succinct answer, with plain fence removed the named fences in the Grand National are as follows:

 

3 – Westhead – 5ft high, open ditch

6 – Becher’s Brook – 4ft 10in high, drop on landing

7 – Foinavon – 4ft 6in high

8 – Canal Turn – 5ft high

9 – Valentine’s Brook – 5ft high

11 – Booth – 5ft high, open ditch

15 – The Chair – 5ft 2in high, open ditch on take off

16 – Water Jump – 2ft 6in high, pool of water behind fence

 

Do outsiders often win the Grand National?

The Grand National in variably attracts whole host of once-a-year punters dreaming of striking it rich by backing an outsider at hugely rewarding odds. However, such wishful thinkers would do well to remember that, in 172 runnings of the celebrated steeplechase, just five horses have won at treble figure odds. The last two 100/1 winners were Mon Mome (2009) and Foinavon (1967), while further back in Grand National history Caughoo (1947), Gregalach (1929) and Tipperary Tim (1928) also scored equally unlikely victories. It is also worth noting that Tipperary Tim and Foinavon took advantage of mid-race pile-ups and Gregalach and Caughoo were part of the two largest Grand National fields in history, 66 and 57, respectively.

Four horses have won the Grand National at odds of 66/1, the last being Auroras Encore (2013), while the last of the four 50/1 winners was Last Suspect (1985). Seven horses have prevailed at odds of 40/1, the last being Royal Athlete (1995) but, interestingly, all four 33/1 winners, the last of which was Rule The World (2016), have been victorious since the turn of the twenty-first century. So, percentage-wise, in 172 runnings of the Grand National, just 24 winners, or roughly 14%, have been returned at odds of 33/1 or longer. If we also consider 25/1 winners, of which Many Clouds (2015) was the last of fourteen, the number of winners increases to 38, or roughly 22%.

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