Grand National Facts

32) During the second world war, over 16 000 American troops were billeted at Aintree and the stars and stripes hung from the flagstaff.

33) The mare Sheila's Cottage was unfancied for the 1948 National, not least because no mare had won since Shannon Lass in 1902. She started at 50-1, half the price of the only other mare in the race, Zahia. Nevertheless, it was Zahia who looked the certain winner as they approached the penultimate fence, but her jockey took the wrong course and Zahia ran out before the last, leaving Sheila's Cottage clear. Two days after her National victory, Sheila's Cottage rewarded her jockey Arthur Thompson by biting off his thumb!

34) In 1951 starter Leslie Firth pressed the lever with half the field still milling about. There was no recall and the jockeys tried desperately to get their mounts in the race. As a result, many of the field fell in the early stages and the field was down to five by the end of the first circuit. The mare Nickel Coin went on to win the race at 40-1.

35) In 1952, the 47 runners charged the tape at the start of the National, causing a 12-minute delay before the race could be re-started. Before the re-start, Teal's jockey Arthur Thompson quipped that "I thought I would have been in the winner's enclosure by now!" Sure enough, minutes later he was after guiding Teal to an impressive victory at 100-7!

36) Legendary Irish flat and jumps trainer Vincent O'Brien trained three consecutive winners in Early Mist (1953), Royal Tan (1954) and Quare Times (1955).

37) In 1956, the Queen Mother's well-fancied Devon Loch was clear after the last and going away from his nearest pursuer when the horse seemed to try to jump a non-existent obstacle and flopped onto his belly. ESB ran past to win, leaving Devon Loch's bemused jockey Dick Francis to work out what had happened. Francis went on to become a famous author but never won the National.

38) Fittingly, Red Rum made his appearance on a racecourse in 1967 at Aintree as a two-year-old in a five-furlong sprint the day before the National. The race was a selling plate in which Rummy dead-heated for first with a horse called Curlicue.

39) In 1967, the appropriately named riderless horse Popham Down veered across the leading horses at the fence after Becher's on the second circuit. The resulting chaos saw all but one of the horses caught up. The rank outsider Foinavon suddenly emerged from the melee. Behind, jockeys remounted or turned their horses as they tried again to jump the fence. Foinavon's lead was gradually cut down, but he went on to win at 100-1 and still had 15 lengths to spare at the finish. The Aintree executive named the fence in honour of the horse. John Buckingham still attends the National each year in his role as a jockey's valet.

40) The great Lester Piggott partnered Red Rum twice during his flat racing career. In 1968, half an hour after Brian Fletcher had guided Red Alligator to win the National, "Rummy" and Lester were beaten a short head in the Earl of Sefton's Plate - at Aintree! Brian Fletcher went on to ride Red Rum in his first three Nationals, winning two and finishing runner-up to L'Escargot in 1975!

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