Grand National winners: Every champion from the world’s greatest steeplechase
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History of the race and all Grand National winners
The Grand National is one of the most famous horse racing events on the calendar and the Aintree race has produced a distinguished list of winners over the years.
Minella Times is the most recent winner of the race, providing Rachael Blackmore with a famous victory in 2021, but the first ever Grand National was back in 1839 when the George Dockeray-trained Lottery galloped to success
Dockeray would go on to train four winners of the race, a record he shares with Fred Rimell and Ginger McCain.
The latter famously trained Red Rum to back-to-back wins in 1973 and 1974 before adding a third Grand National victory in 1977 to become the race’s winning-most horse and he is arguably the most famous Grand National winner of them all.
Red Rum is one of only a select few to carry top-weight to victory at Aintree, although in 2015 Many Clouds shouldered a monster 11st 9lbs when prevailing for Oliver Sherwood.
In recent history it is Tiger Roll who has made Grand National history, becoming the first horse since Red Rum to land back-to-back victories in the race curtesy of his victories in 2018 and 2019. Having missed the race in 2021, there is every chance he goes for the hat-trick in 2022.
His trainer Gordon Elliott is the winning-most current trainer having saddled three Grand National winners. Silver Birch was the first winner for the Cullentra House handler before Tiger Roll’s double and he is sure to have plenty of runners high up in the Grand National betting odds in 2022.
One of the most dramatic and surprising Grand National results came in 1967. Foinavon, whose owner Cyril Watkins had such little hope of his horse winning that he wasn’t even at the course, defied Grand National odds of 100/1 to land the grandest prize of all.
Foinavon was the beneficiary of a pile-up at the fence that now bears his name and he is one of five 100/1 winners of the Grand National. The most recent 100/1 scorer was Mon Mome in 2009 under the guidance of Liam Treadwell for Venetia Williams and in the aftermath, he famously remarked how the prize money would help him with his dental treatment.
Famous jockeys such as Ruby Walsh and AP McCoy have both won the Grand National, but the race eluded the recently retired four-time Champion Jockey Richard Johnson as well as John Francombe, who is considered one of the greatest of all time.
Walsh is one of many two-time winning jockeys in the race along with Leighton Aspell, Carl Llewellyn and Richard Dunwoody, while Davy Russell is the only dual-National winner currently riding. George Stevens is the race’s leading rider, winning five times between 1856 and 1870.
All of the action takes place over the famous birch of the Grand National course in April every year with a maximum field of 40 having to clear 30 fences and cover 4m2f of Merseyside turf to land the prestigious prize.
