Aintree Facts and Figures

20 March 2013

The 2013 John Smith Grand National jackpot is an impressive £975,000 with a three-day event pool of £2,725,000 this year.

The John Smith’s Grand National is not just the world’s most famous jump race but also the most valuable.  It is also the biggest tests for racehorse and rider around two circuits of the Grand National course - with 30 fences to be jumped as four miles, three furlongs and about 110 yards are covered.

Bechers Brook is the most famous fence in the world and is named after Captain Martin Becher, the rider who came off Conrad into the brook in the first ever Grand National of 1839.  The fence is jumped twice (6 & 22) with a 4ft 10in height and a 5ft 8in landing side. The take-off and landing sides have been reduced over the years.

The Chair (fence 15) positioned in front of the grandstand, is the tallest fence at the Grand National, measuring 1.58m (5ft 2in) in height with a 1.83m (5ft) wide ditch on the take-off side. The landing side it is actually 6in higher than the take-off side, creating a reverse to Becher’s Brook.   It is one of two fences in the Grand National that has to be negotiated only once (the other is Fence 16, The Water Jump).

The Chair is named after the chair once sited alongside the fence, at which a distance judge would sit when races used to be run in heats. Horses that tailed off too far were disqualified from later heats.

Bookmakers estimate that some £500 million is wagered in Britain on the day, with the John Smith’s Grand National accounting for the bulk of that.

The maximum field now allowed of 40 has lined up every year since 2000 except in 2004 when 39 went to post. This is in parts thanks to the reserve system, introduced in 2000. Four reserves will be on standby for the 2013 John Smith’s Grand National.

Neptune Collonges, trained by Paul Nicholls and ridden by Daryl Jacob, last year ended a 51- year wait for a grey winner when getting up to beat Sunnyhillboy by a nose - the shortest winning margin in the 165 runnings.  He became only the third grey horse to win in the history of the Grand National, following on from Nicolaus Silver in 1961 and The Lamb who scored in both 1868 and 1871.

Mares (female horses) lining up in this year’s John Smith’s Grand National have to overcome a long losing sequence for their sex. Overall 13 mares have won the John Smith’s Grand National, but the most recent was Nickel Coin back in 1951.

Age matters when it comes to picking a winner! Nine-year-old horses have proved the most successful age group in recent years, providing the winner in nine of the last 30 runnings. They also have the best overall record in the Grand National, winning at least 44 times in 165 runnings. (The ages of some early winners were not recorded). 

A change in race conditions instituted for the 2012 running means that only seven-year-olds and upwards can now take part in the John Smith’s Grand National.

Due to the field size and competitiveness of the John Smith’s Grand National, statistics show that the race winner usually starts at double-figure odds in the betting market.  Only eight favourites have won since 1959.  Three 100/1 shots have been placed since 1980 – there’s hope for us all!

Ruby Walsh holds the best record of current jockeys, having won the John Smith’s Grand National twice - on Papillon in 2000 and Hedgehunter five years later.

The current record-breaking 17-time champion jockey AP McCoy had to wait until his 15th attempt to win the John Smith’s Grand National on Don’t Push It in 2010. He was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in June, 2010 and voted the 2010 BBC Sports Personality of the Year. He finished third on the same horse in 2011.

Let’s hear it for the girls: Geraldine Rees became the first female jockey to complete the Grand National on Cheers in 1982. Four other female jockeys have finished the Grand National, with Katie Walsh faring best of all when guiding Seabass, trained by her father Ted, to be third in 2012. She was having her first ride in the race and held a narrow advantage jumping the last but her mount could find no extra in the closing stages.  Katie and Seabass are set to make a 2013 appearance and is currently joint favourite

Jenny Pitman, who became the first woman to train a Grand National winner, sent out Corbiere (1983) and Royal Athlete (1995) to succeed. Her Esha Ness also ‘won’ the void race in 1993.

In 1993 the Grand National was declared void after a false start amid chaotic scenes. The contest was “won” by the Jenny Pitman-trained Esha Ness, who was among a number of horses whose riders failed to notice starter Keith Brown had called a false start and continued to race despite efforts of officials to halt proceedings.

In 1997, Sir Peter O’Sullevan, the BBC’s ‘voice of racing’, completed his 50th and final commentary on the Grand National took place on a Monday after the scheduled running on the Saturday had to be postponed because of an IRA bomb scare. The alert caused the biggest evacuation in the history of the sport.

2013 sees the historic race broadcast for the first ever on Channel 4 Television.  Channel 4 has a long-standing pedigree in horse racing having been the sport’s principal and weekly broadcaster since 1984.