Long Shots Who Won The National
The Grand National is often billed as ‘The Greatest Steeplechase In the World’ and a contributing factor to this accolade is its unpredictability. In fact throughout its history the race has had a significant number of winners on which the bookmakers gave long odds. Amongst the long shots are five horses that have won the race since 1928 after being placed at 100-1, presenting a great opportunity to get lucky and have some fun along the way.
Tipperary Tim was the first horse to beat the odds and win the race at a 100-1 back in 1928 although it took a major pile up to narrow the field and give the rank outsider a chance. It was Easter Hero who fell at Canal Turn causing the pile up that gave Tipperary Tim his chance with Billy Barton coming in second and were the only two horses to finish this year.
The largest number of horses to ever compete in the Grand National in 1929 helped the next 100-1 horse ‘Grelach’ win the race. Sixty-Six horses where in the starting line up and inevitably this caused the chaos which lead to only ten horses finishing.
Again in 1947 a high number of horses in the race lead to a congested pack that stifled the strong favourites, such as Prince Regent who had finished third the previous year, and allowed the Irish trained 100-1 outsider Caughoo to win.
1967 brought another memorable race with Foinavon taking his place in history as well as giving his name to the fence that follows the famous Becher’s Brook. The fence in question is the cause for his victory as several horses that had lost their riders on the previous jumps pulled up and in turn stopped the closely following leading pack. This gave John Buckingham who was riding Foinavon to catch up and steer clear of the pile up, Some riders were able to remount but it was already to late and Foinavon finished with fifteen lengths to spare.
Our final 100-1 winner is Mon Mome who fought hard to win in what was a very strongly contested race. With well over ten horses remaining and two fences to go Jockey Liam Treadwell managed to keep Mon Mome in the race and when he asked for more Mon Mome gave and with a slight weight advantage crept forward to take the race.
