THE GRAND NATIONAL WHEN IN ITS INFANCY.

​As any fool knows, the first Grand National was run in 1859 and won by Lottery, formerly known as Chance. The race was held not in April as now or in March as it once was but February 26th, a Tuesday. The conditions of entry were ‘A sweepstake of 20-soverigns each, 5-shilling forfeit, with 100 added; 12-stone each, gentleman riders; 4-miles across country; the second to save his stake and the winner to pay 10-soverigns towards expenses; no rider to open a gate or ride through a gateway, or more than 100-yards along any road, footpath or driftway.’ Lottery was ridden by Jem Mason and beat Seventy-Four and Paulina by 3-lengths and the same. 17 ran.
Jump racing back in the eighteen-hundreds was very much the poor relation to the flat, with often the top riders from aristocratic families, not either wishing to bring disgrace on their heritage or simply to avoid attention, rode under pseudonyms. And it took several years before the Grand National stopped being a novelty to begin its journey to what it is today – the greatest horserace in the world.
I would suggest the period between 1859 and 1868 was when the race attracted owners, trainers and jockeys whose greatest aspiration or ambition was to have his name associated with the winner of the Grand National, with horses laid out all season with Liverpool in mind.
Whether the course was easier or the horses better trained but the winner in 1859, Half-Caste, recorded a time a full 4½-minutes faster than the great Lottery. In this year there was a French challenger, an indication that the fame of the race was becoming infectious. Jean du Quesne was ridden by Harry Lamplugh, a Yorkshireman and it is easy to assume the owner’s ambition was fired by Lamplugh’s recollections of the trials and tribulations previous runnings of the race.
The 1860 race was won by Anatis, ridden by ‘Mr. Thomas’, the pseudonym of Thomas Pickernell, one of the leading riders of the age. Mr. Edwards was in every other walk of life bar the Turf, George Ede and a country parson by the name of Drake rode as Mr. Ekard.
Perhaps even more so than today, horses tended to return year after year, with many being placed numerous times. Huntsman, as an example, was 2nd and 3rd before he won the race in 1862.
In 1862, there was a sad postscript. Dennis Wynn had won the race fifteen-years previously on Matthew, the first success for Ireland, and in the 1862 race his son was to partner O’Connell. On the eve of the race father and son received the dreadful news that James’ sister had died back home in Ireland. James Wynn was given the option of standing down but insisted on taking part. Unfortunately, hardly believable if it was not documented in the historical record, O’Connell got caught-up in a melee, the horse landing on the prostrate Wynn. The following day Wynn succumbed to his injuries.
In 1863, George Stevens, the best professional of his era, won on Lord Coventry’s Emblem and the following year he won again for Lord Coventry on Emblem’s younger sister Emblematic, the like of which we will doubtless never experience in our lifetime.
In 1865 there was such a winner that we definitely will not encounter in our lifetime. Alcibiade, ridden by Capt. Coventry, cousin of the owner of Emblem and Emblematic, and a serving officer in the Grenadier Guards. For military officers back in the 1800’s, when not on active duty in the Crimea or somewhere else overseas, it was in vogue to ‘have a crack at the Grand National’.
I know little about Capt. Coventry, though he must have been either very brave or very foolish as Alcibiade was not only a five-year-old but though he had run on the flat, he had never run in a steeplechase until his appointment with fate in 1865. He won, amazingly, by a head and fifty-yards. It is a shake-your-head-in-disbelief sort of racing fact, isn’t it?
30-horses faced the starter the following year, the largest number in the history of the race thus far. There were two false starts, something to write about in our age but nothing out of the ordinary for back then. The winner, Salamander, was born with a crooked leg and the breeder had the devil’s own job to sell him. Eventually he took £70 from a Mr.Hartigan, who, after turning the horse out in a field for a few months, passed the horse on to a Mr.Studd along with a couple of hunters. To everyone’s surprise, the horse could jump and when many years later the horse lined-up in the Grand National, the owner was so confident of success he staked £1,000 to win £40,000.
The Duke of Hamilton, or the Red Duke, as he was known, was on a long losing streak with his bookmaker and had financial difficulties away from the Turf when Cortolvin went to post in 1867. The Red Duke, perhaps thinking he had little more to lose, plunged heavily on his horse and for once the gods were on his side, the horse winning at odds of 16/1.
The years of 1868 to 1871were remarkable for two dual winners. The Lamb won in 68 and 71 and was one of the most popular horses in training as he was a lamb in both nature and posture. In between The Colonel became the first horse to win back-to-back Grand Nationals, ridden on both occasions by George Stevens.
It is the victories of The Lamb and The Colonel that elevated the Grand National in the eyes of the sporting and general public, allowing the race to gain kudos and status and become coupled with the Lincolnshire Handicap and to become half of the famed if now overlooked Spring Double. Of course, now the Grand National stands alone, far out-reaching the Lincoln in popularity, indeed, outreaching every other race in the world.