October 2025

1998 Grand National Result

Admin October 25, 2025 No Comments

1998 Grand National – Full Finishing Results

Date: 4 April 1998
Course: Aintree Racecourse
Going: Soft
Distance: 4 miles 4 furlongs 856 yards
Runners: 37
Finishers: 6
Winning Time: 10 minutes 51.5 seconds

Race Summary

• Winner: Earth Summit (trained by Nigel Twiston-Davies, ridden by Carl Llewellyn)
• Winning Margin: 11 lengths over Suny Bay
• Favourite: Earth Summit (7/1) – won
• Prize for 1st Place: £189,180
• Notable: Earth Summit became the first horse ever to win the Scottish, Welsh, and Aintree Grand Nationals.

The 1998 Grand National, run on heavy going on April 4, 1988, featured 37 runners, of which just six completed the course and three – Pashto, Do Rightly and Griffins Bar – were fatally injured early on the first circuit. An attritional renewal was won by the 7/1 favourite Earth Summit, trained by Nigel Twiston-Davies and ridden by Carl Llewellyn, who was completing a notable career treble insofar as he had already won the Scottish Grand National at Ayr in 1994 and the Welsh Grand National at Chepstow the previous December.

Llewellyn, who was deputising for the injured Tom Jenks, always had the 10-year-old in a handy position and, having taken the lead five fences from home, asked his mount for maximum effort approaching the final fence. The further they went, the further they went away from the topweight Suny Bay, ridden by Graham Bradley – who was, in his defence, conceding 23lb to the winner – and eventually passed the post 11 lengths to the good. Suny Bay plugged on to finish second, a distance ahead of the third horse home, Samlee, with St. Mellion Fairway close behind in fourth place. Reflecting on his good fortune, Llewellyn said afterwards, “I’m a bit of a jammy git;Tom Jenks should have ridden him.”

Not altogether surprisingly, granted the underfoot conditions, the winning time, of 10 minutes and 51.5 seconds, was the slowest since 1883, when just 10 horses came under starters’ orders on similarly heavy going. However, they say time only matters if you’re doing it, and Twiston-Davies later said of Earth Summit, “He was a very good horse, who has certainly done us proud. He won the three different Nationals, which no other horse has done and hopefully he’ll keep us in the record books for some time.”

1999 Grand National Result

Admin October 25, 2025 No Comments

1999 Grand National – Full Finishing Results

Date: 10 April 1999
Course: Aintree Racecourse
Going: Good to Soft
Distance: 4 miles 4 furlongs 856 yards
Runners: 32
Finishers: 10
Winning Time: 9 minutes 14.1 seconds

Race Summary

• Winner: Bobbyjo (trained by Tommy Carberry, ridden by Paul Carberry)
• Winning Margin: 10 lengths over Blue Charm
• Favourite: Eudipe (7/1) – finished 5th
• Prize for 1st Place: £211,600
• Notable: First Irish-trained winner since L’Escargot in 1975. Bobbyjo later finished 11th in the 2000 Grand National.

The 1999 Grand National had the distinction of being the last without any facility for reserves to participate and, for the sixth time in as many years, was under-subscribed, with just 32 horses facing the starter, rather than the maximum permissible 40. Those 32 runners included the first four home in the 1998 Grand National, Earth Summit, Suny Bay, Samlee and St. Mellion Fairway, but, on significantly faster going, officially described as ‘good’, none of that quartet was involved in the finish.

Favourite at the ‘off’ was Fiddling The Facts, trained by Nicky Henderson, who fell at Becher’s Brook on the second circuit. Joint second-favourite Double Thriller, trained by Paul Nicholls, also fell, at the first fence and, in the absence of two of the three market leaders, victory went to the 10/1 co-third favourite, Bobbyjo, trained by Tommy Carberry, in Co. Meath, and ridden by his son Paul.

After being slightly outpaced at the second-last fence, Bobbyjo was switched to the outside to make his challenge at the final fence and was driven clear on the run-in to win by 10 lengths. Paul Carberry made winning the National sound straightforward, saying, “I got a good start and was handy the whole way. I was able to get a breather into him whenever I wanted. He jumped very well and I sat as long as I could.

Bobbyjo completed the Grand National Course in a time of nine minutes and 14.1 seconds. Blue Charm, trained by Sue Bradburne and ridden by Lorcan Wyer, could find no extra in the closing stages and finished second, just a neck ahead of the other 7/1 joint-second favourite, Call It A Day, trained by David Nicholson and ridden by Richard Dunwoody. Another of the 10/1 co-third favourites, Addington Boy, trained by Ferdy Murphy and ridden by Adrian Maguire, finished fourth, a further seven lengths away.