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.