foinavon: a hero of aintree.

​Pat Taaffe in his autobiography ‘My Life and Arkle’s wrote of Foinavon ‘Now I think if you asked me to pick a horse in that race to find a way through, I would have chosen Foinavon. The others might panic, but not this one’. Later, he wrote. ‘I was glad to see him win, because I had quite a soft spot for this droll little horse’.
As a young horse Foinavon was owned by the Duchess of Westminster and trained by Tom Dreaper. He ran 23-times from Greenogue, winning 3 races of little significance. To return to Pat Taaffe’s wonderful, if all too brief, autobiography. ‘On a day at Baldoyle, we fell heavily. We parted company in mid-air and after I bounced, I looked around, half expecting to see Foinavon in trouble. And there he was lying down … eating grass, cool as you please, just taking time out for a snack.’
It is my contention that Foinavon never receives the credit he deserves for being the only horse to negotiate the fence that now bears his name, the only one to ignore the mayhem of horses going any which way but over the fence, with jockeys on the wrong-side of the fence, with some stranded on the fence. And Foinavon was not the only horse out of camera shot as the field approached the one after Bechers. He was, though, the only one brave enough to avoid fate’s snipers and get to the other side.
At the moment of perhaps the most madcap episode in the history of the race, what was most remarkable was the number of horses still running and without the debacle at the twenty-third fence, the 1967 Grand National might be recorded with the greatest number of finishers. 44 set-off on April 8th and even with pandemonium at fence 23, 18 still managed to pass the winning post, with the majority of jockeys believing themselves to be unlucky not to have won.
What is never mentioned about the 1967 Grand National is that in completing the course in 9-minutes 49-seconds, Foinavon’s time was faster than Kilmore in 1962, Well To Do in 1972, Rubstic in 1979 and Ben Nevis, admittedly in heavy ground, in 1980 and only 2-seconds slower than Aldaniti in1981 and Corbiere in 1983. And Foinavon doddled round, going no faster when alone in front as he was when he was out-of-contention, with John Buckingham’s only ambition to get round safely. The time maybe nowhere close to what Red Rum, and later Mr.Frisk, achieved, yet it is a respectable time.
The sad part about what happened at the twenty-third was that it might have cost that grand old horse Freddie his final opportunity to win the race, having been second the previous two-years. Honey End, ridden by Josh Gifford won the race for second, with Red Alligator and Brian Flecther third, the combination that ‘righted the wrong’ the following year, running away to win by twenty-length.
Also, and this fact continues to escape me, the winner of the 2-year-old selling race at Aintree the day before Foinavon became a Grand National hero, was to become the sport’s greatest equine hero, the horse rightfully credited with saving the Grand National from the developer’s heavy plant machinery. Red Rum, of course, a horse of a completely different hue to Foinavon.
Reg Green, in his mighty tome, ‘A Race Apart’, a history of the great race, did at least praise Foinavon with being ‘worthy winner’, even if at odds of 444/1 on the Tote very few punters would have been of the same opinion. And he was a worthy, if fortunate winner, as he achieved what no other horse in the race achieved, in a sport where obstacles are to be jumped, he successfully negotiated all 30-fences and was the first past the winning post. He may not have ordinarily cared much for extending himself on the racecourse but on the day it truly mattered, he rose to the challenge. The following year, ridden by Phil Harvey, as Buckingham was claimed by his employer, Edward Courage, Foinavon was showing a little more plunk and according to his jockey was travelling okay when he was brought down at the Chair by Bassnet, one of the favourites.
Overall, though, Foinavon cared as little for winning races after he became a household name as he did before, though in 1968, on his favoured firm ground, he managed to win races at Devon & Exeter and Uttoxeter.
For all the critics will claim him the luckiest winner in the history of the race, his name will live in perpetuity and only the precious few achieve such status. As Reg Green wrote, he was a worthy winner and should be remembered as such.