Blast From The Past: 1977 Grand National

This week the Royal Mail issued a special series of stamps depicting famous racehorses, including the four most celebrated steeplechasers of the last sixty years or so. Arkle, Red Rum, Desert Orchid and Kauto Star each became household names, though of that quartet, only Red Rum earned his fame from the Grand National which none of the others ever contested. It was Red Rum’s unparalleled record around Aintree, of course, where he contested five consecutive Nationals between 1973 and 1977, which won him legendary status.

Even if he’d never run in the race again, Red Rum’s successful first attempt as an eight-year-old would have ensured him a place in the race’s folklore. Top weight Crisp was still fifteen lengths clear jumping the last but tired dramatically on the run-in as Red Rum stayed on to snatch victory in record time in the last strides.

A year later it was Red Rum who shouldered top weight of 12-0, but that didn’t stop him beating the former dual Cheltenham Gold Cup winner L’Escargot and becoming the first dual winner since Reynoldstown (also the last horse to have carried twelve stone or more to victory) in the 1930’s.

In 1975, again carrying 12-0, Red Rum was sent off the 7/2 favourite to make history as the first horse to win the race three times but, on much better terms than the year before, it was L’Escargot who turned the tables to beat him by fifteen lengths. Under top weight once more in 1976, Red Rum touched down in front over the final fence but was runner-up again, this time behind the Welsh National winner Rag Trade.

As a twelve-year-old, then, in 1977, Red Rum’s best chance of an historic third Grand National looked as though it might have already passed him by. He was top weight again, though even under 11-8 had to concede 9 lb to Davy Lad, the first reigning Cheltenham Gold Cup winner to be sent on to Aintree for more than thirty years. Red Rum had failed to finish within fifteen lengths of the winner in any of his six outings before the National, including in the National Trial at Haydock won by Andy Pandy who started 15/2 favourite at Aintree.

It was Andy Pandy’s fall when a dozen lengths clear at Becher’s second time round which proved the turning point of the race, as it was only on the run to the Canal Turn that Red Rum’s jockey Tommy Stack asked him to assert. When his only possible danger Churchtown Boy clouted the second last, Red Rum steadily pulled clear and won unchallenged by twenty-five lengths. Red Rum’s first two victories came just before Timeform introduced a jumping annual, but the aftermath of his historic third victory was described in Chaser & Hurdlers 1976/77:    

‘As Red Rum and Stack made their way to the unsaddling enclosure, they were given one of the most emotional receptions seen on a racecourse in living memory. With the race unfolding like the story of some piece of racing fiction, there can have been few more popular victories in the Grand National. We had been treated to one of the finest displays seen in the race; Red Rum had given weight to every horse in the field, jumped all thirty fences without serious error, and galloped home alone, the length of a street in front. The occasion of Red Rum’s third triumph in the Grand National will be remembered as one of the great events in steeplechasing.’

It was only on the eve of a planned sixth National appearance that Red Rum was retired with a hairline fracture. He went on to enjoy celebrity status in retirement and lived to the age of thirty before his death in October 1995; his final resting place is adjacent to the Aintree winning post. His trainer Ginger McCain won a fourth Grand National with Amberleigh House in 2004.