Gand National Disasters

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Year by year grand national incidents

Here is a list of incidents - and disasters - from the famous Grand National horse race. Its always good to see what happened in past races, but this guide is all about the stand out headlines from the year listed. Hope you find it as entertaining as we did compiling it...

 

1854

When expected favourite Miss Mowbray arrives at Aintree she was 'got at' when someone applied a blister to her foreleg, laming her.

 

1885

Zoedone, second favourite (and 1883 winner)  is injected with poison shortly before leaving the paddock. After galloping through the first circuit, she eventually gives up through second circuit when well adrift.

 

1917

When the war was on the Grand National was ran at Gatwick. On this year Limerock beats all the rest of the horses to the finish line, only to fall limp a few metres from the finishing line.

 

1928

In an amazing race 100-1 shot Tipperary Tim beats all 41 contenders as they all fall out of the race before finishing.

 

1948

In an unfortunate case of bad luck, Zahia is in third place when her jockey takes the wrong course, resulting in them missing out the last fence.

 

1951

29 out of 36 runners crash out before the half way point on the first circuit. The race resulted in only 3 horse actually finishing.

 

1952

In a dispute with the BBC over copyright issues, radio commentators are replaced with Mirabel Topham and friends. Unfortunately alot of the commentary proved inaccurate, the novices announcing that Teal had fallen before the first fence. Teal, of course, goes on to win the race!

 

1964

The Grand National is threatened to be the last ever, as Aintree (the race venue) is set to be sold off to a property development firm. This resulted in many years (20 to be exact) of legal wrangling eventually resulting in the purchase of the course by the Jockey Club, with finance from the public.

 

1967

A loose horse causes carnage, bringing the whole course to a stop. Eventually 100-1 shot Foivanon manages to get free surprising everyone with the win.

 

1993

The Grand National is abandoned, as the recall system fails, two falls starts happen and many of the runners complete two circuits. Eisha Ness goes through first, in a race that essentially wasn't won.

 

1997

The Grand National is postponed after a security alert forces the evacuation of the whole of Aintree. It runs two days later, and is won by Lorg Gyllene.

 

2001

The Aintree course is compromised by extremely heaving rain, resulting in what many people regarded as a dangerous race day. The course management is berated by the press, and new safeguards were announced for future races.

 

2006

An false start resulted in many of the Aintree crowd booing the starter. The horses are recalled quickly, and the race starts without incident.

 

2007

An embarrassing delay of eight minutes to the start puts the race in the headlines for the wrong reasons once again. Debates rage as to who is at fault, with starter Peter Haynes blaming the jockeys for failing to obey his instructions. Haynes is later to be replaced by Sean McDonald.