November 2025

Grand National 1986 Results

Admin November 27, 2025 No Comments

Run on April 5, 1986, the 1986 Grand National featured a maximum 40 runners, including the first five home in the 1985 renewal, Last Suspect, Mr. Snugfit, Corbiere, Greasepaint and Classified. Of those familiar faces, Mr. Snugfit, trained by MickEasterby, was widely considered an unlucky loser in 1985 and had subsequently been bought by high-profile gambler Terry Ramsden with the Grand National in mind. He was reportedly subject to a bet of £500,000 from his new owner, which accounted, at least in part, for him being sent off 13/2 favourite, despite a quiet preparation.

Mr. Snugfit was closely attended in the betting by another seemingly-unlucky loser from the 1985 renewal, West Tip, trained by Michael Oliver, who must surely have gone close to winning but for falling at Becher’s Brook on the second circuit. Indeed, jockey Richard Dunwoody requested to be excused from his retainer to ride Port Askaig, trained by Tim Forster, to ride West Tip again. That fact did not go unnoticed by the betting public and the nine-year-old was sent off a well-backed 15/2 second-favourite.

On the prevailing good to soft going, 66/1 outsider Young Driver led over the second-last fence, but was tackled, and passed, on the run-in by West Tip. Indeed, it was not until the last hundred yards or so that Dunwoody reached for his whip and, when he did so, West Tip responded and was always holding his toiling rival. West Tip passed the post two lengths to the good, with a yawning 20-length gap back to the third horse home, Classified, while Mr. Snugfit came from miles back to finish fourth, a further length-and-a-half away.

At the time of his death, aged 24, in July 2001, Dunwoody, who was just 22 when he won his first Grand National, said of West Tip,”He was a tremendous performer and a great jumper who had enough class to finish a close fourth in the [Cheltenham] Gold Cup as well. I will always remember him.”

Grand National 1985 Results

Admin November 27, 2025 No Comments

Run on good to soft going on March 30, 1985, the 1985 Grand National featured a maximum 40 runners, including the first four home in the 1984 renewal, Hallo Dandy, Greasepaint, Corbiere and Lucky Vane. Hallo Dandy, in the hands of Graham Bradley, deputising for the injured Neale Doughty, unseated rider at the very first fence, while Lucky Vane was pulled up at the fence after Valentine’s Brook on the first circuit. The principal hard-luck story, though, involved West Tip, who was sent off joint-favourite, alongside Greasepaint, but fell, when in the lead and travelling well, at Becher’s Brook on the second circuit.

Corbiere and Greasepaint were among the five horses still in with a realistic chance of winning approaching the final fence, but were preceded by Mr. Snugfit, who went clear at the Elbow, halfway up the run-in. However, inside the final hundred yards, the leader started to send out distress signals. As he did so, Hywel Davies managed to summon a tremendous run from Last Suspect, who had only been fourth jumping the final fence, which carried him past Corbiere and the ailing leader in the closing stages, to win by a length and a half.

Owned by Anne Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster and trained by Tim Forster in Letcombe Bassett, Oxfordshire, Last Suspect had a reputation for mulish behaviour, as he had demonstrated when pulling himself up in his preparatory race for the Grand National, at Warwick. Consequently, at Aintree, with Davies putting up 3lb overweight, the 11-year-old was sent off a largely unconsidered 50/1 chance. Davies later said of him, “He was a careful jumper and had never fallen. He got his blood up the day of the National and just went. I kept him out of traffic on the first circuit and just rode him home on the second circuit.”

Grand National 1984 Results

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The 1984 Grand National, run on March 31, 1984, had the distinction of being the first with a safety limit of 40 runners, which would remain until it was further reduced, to 34 runners, from 2024 onwards. Nevertheless, 23 of the 40 runners completed the course, thereby setting a record that still stands.

On good going, victory went to the well-treated, and well-backed, 10-year-old Hallo Dandy, trained by Gordon W. Richards in Greystoke, near Penrith, Cumbria and ridden by Neale Doughty. In 1983, on soft going, Hallo Dandy had finished fourth behind Corbiere, Greasepaint and Yer Man, beaten a little over 23 lengths, but on better going and revised weight terms, reversed the previous form with all three.

Turning for home, Greasepaint and Hallo Dandy held a clear lead over the ill-fated Earthstopper – who would finish fifth, but collapsed and died shortly afterwards – and it soon became clear they had the race between them. Hallo Dandy took the lead approaching the second-last fence, with Doughty briefly looking around and, although hotly pursued by Greasepaint all the way to the finish line, never really looked like being beaten.

In the closing stages, with the front pair separated by almost the width of the track, and the camera angle foreshortening the distance between them, BBC commentator Sir Peter O’Sullevab exclaimed, “…there’s nothing between them as they come to the line”; Hallo Dandy had, in fact, won by four lengths. The 1983 winner, Corbiere, stayed on well for third place, beaten a further length and a half, with the well-fancied Lucky Vane in fourth, a further two-and-a-half lengths away.

Hallo Dandy was put down on veterinary advice in January 2007, at which point Nicky Richards, son of Gordon, said, “He [Hallo Dandy] was probably one of the last proper, old-fashioned staying chasers who won the National. At the age of 33, Hallo Dandy had been the oldest surviving winner of the Grand National.

Grand National 1983 Results

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Saturday, April 9, 1983 was a red-letter day in the history of the Grand National insofar as the winner, Corbiere, was saddled by Jenny Pitman, who thus became the first woman to train the winner of the world-famous steeplechase. On soft going, in the last year when the safety limit for the Grand National was still 50, 41 horses went to post, of which just 10 completed the course.

Despite top weight of 11st 12lb, and an interrupted preparation, the 1982 winner Grittar – ridden by Paul Barton, deputising for the injured John Francome, following the retirement of his former jockey Dick Saunders – was sent off favourite to follow up. He was never travelling particularly well and a blunder at the fence after Becher’s Brook on the second circuit finally put paid to any chance he had. He eventually trailed in a remote fifth.

Corbiere, ridden by Ben de Haan, looked to hold strong claims, having won the Welsh Grand National at Chepstow earlier in the season and finished second in the National Hunt Handicap Chase at the Cheltenham Festival on his most recent start. He was sent off 13/1 fifth favourite and jumped impeccably most of the way, establishing a clear lead at Valentine’s Brook on the second circuit and repelling the fast-finishing Greasepaint on the run-in to win by three-quarters of a length.

The latter, the winner of the Kim Muir Challenge Cup at the Cheltenham Festival, did not help his cause with a bad mistake at Valentine’s Brook and, although his jockey, amateur Colin Magnier did his level best to make up the deficit in the last hundred yards or so, Greasepaint was never quite getting to Corbiere. Another Irish-trained runner, Yer Man, who was sent off at a generous-looking 80/1, finished a one-paced third, a further 20 lengths away.