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1995 Grand National Result

Admin October 25, 2025 No Comments

1995 Grand National – Full Finishing Results

Date: 8 April 1995
Course: Aintree Racecourse
Going: Soft (Good to Soft in places)
Distance: 4 miles 4 furlongs 856 yards
Runners: 36
Finishers: 15
Winning Time: 9 minutes 29.9 seconds

Race Summary

• Winner: Royal Athlete (trained by Jenny Pitman, ridden by Jason Titley)
• Winning Margin: 7 lengths over Party Politics
• Favourite: Master Oats (5/1) – finished 4th
• Prize for 1st Place: £115,606

For the second year running, the 1995 Grand National, run on good going, featured fewer than the maximum allowed number of runners, with just 35 horses heading to post. The weights and the betting were headed by the Cheltenham Gold Cup winner, Master Oats, trained by Kim Bailey and Norman Williamson; despite the welter burden of 11st 10lb, the nine-year-old was sent off 5/1 favourite to become the first horse since Golden Miller, in 1934, to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Grand National in the same season.

He didn’t, weakening on the run-in to finish seventh, 15¾ lengths behind the winner, Royal Athlete, trained by Jenny Pitman and ridden by Jason Titley. One of six Pitman-trained entries, Royal Athlete, a 12-year-old, was sent off at 40/1, having been beaten on all five starts since winning a handicp chase at Cheltenham, off a 6lb higher mark, the previous November. However, having led or disputed the lead from early on the second circuit, the Roselier gelding ran on strongly approaching the final fence and was driven clear to win by seven lengths. As BBC commentator Sir Peter O’Sullevan put it, “They’re coming into the final hundred yards and Royal Athlete is sprinting! Royal Athlete cannot be caught now.”

Party Politics, the 1992 winner, chased Royal Athlete from halfway up the run-in, but could make no impression in the closing stages. He still finished clear second, six lengths ahead of 100/1 chance Over The Deel, who just got the better of Dubacilla, Romany King and Into The Red in a three-way photograph for third place.

At the time of his death, in 2003, Pitman said of Royal Athlete, “…he was as brave as a lion, and if he ever landed over the last in front, he was never beaten.”

1996 Grand National Result

Admin October 25, 2025 No Comments

1996 Grand National – Full Finishing Results

Date: 6 April 1996
Course: Aintree Racecourse
Going: Good to Soft
Distance: 4 miles 4 furlongs 856 yards
Runners: 27
Finishers: 17
Winning Time: 9 minutes 29.9 seconds

Race Summary

• Winner: Rough Quest (trained by Terry Casey, ridden by Mick Fitzgerald)
• Winning Margin: 1¼ lengths over Encore Un Peu
• Favourite: Rough Quest (7/1) – won
• Prize for 1st Place: £189,180

Red Rum, the only horse to win the Grand National three times, died on October 18, 1995, and was duly buried at the finishing line at Aintree with his head facing the winning post. His final resting place was chosen such that, when the Grand National winner crosses the line, the sun casts a shdow over his graze. On the first occasion since his burial, on March 30, 1996, said shadow was cast by the 7/1 favourite, Rough Quest, trained by Terry Casey and ridden by Mick Fitzgerald.

Fresh from a second-placed finish in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, behind Imperial Call, just over two weeks previously, Rough Quest moved into fourth place, travelling notably well, crossing the Melling Road for the final time. Encore En Peu, trained by Martin Pipe and ridden by David Bridgwater, still led by four lengths at the final fence, but Fitzgerald delayed his challenge until passing the elbow, switching to the outside and soon taking the measure of his toiling rival.

Having hit the front, Rough Quest hung left, causing Bridgwater to momentarily stop riding, which attracted the attention of the stewards. At the line, Rough Quest was just a length-and-a-quarter ahead, but well on top and, following the subsequent stewards’ enquiry, the result was allowed to stand. The well-fancied Superior Finish, trained by Jenny Pitman and ridden by Richard Dunwoody, stayed on well on the run-in to finish third, albeit 16 lengths behind Encore En Peu, and just held that position by a short-head from Sir Peter Lely, who was, in turn, just three-quarters of a length of the fifth horse home, Young Hustler.

On going officially described as “good”, the winning time, of 9 minutes and 0.80 seconds, was 9.20 seconds faster than the Racing Post standard time and remains the third-fastest in the history of the Grand National.

1997 Grand National Result

Admin October 25, 2025 No Comments

1997 Grand National – Full Finishing Results

Date: 7 April 1997
Course: Aintree Racecourse
Going: Good
Distance: 4 miles 4 furlongs 856 yards
Runners: 36
Finishers: 17
Winning Time: 9 minutes 5.9 seconds

Race Summary

• Winner: Lord Gyllene (trained by Steve Brookshaw, ridden by Tony Dobbin)
• Winning Margin: 25 lengths over Sunny Bay
• Favourite: Rough Quest (10/1) – finished 14th
• Prize for 1st Place: £189,180
• Notes: This was the “Monday National,” run two days late after a bomb threat forced evacuation of Aintree on the original Saturday.

The 1997 Grand National was originally scheduled for Saturday, April 5, 1997, but following two coded bomb threats from the Irish Republican Army (IRA), received an hour or so before the proposed ‘off’ time, Aintree Racecourse was evacuated and the race was postponed for 48 hours. Bomb squads subsequently carried out controlled explosions on two suspect packages at the course, although both turned out to be innocuous.

Over 20,000 spectators reconvened for the so-called ‘Monday National’, rescheduled for 5.00pm on Monday, April 7. A total of 36 horses went to post, but it would be fair to say that the winner, Lord Gyllene, barely saw a rival for most of the four and a half miles. Owned by the late Sir Stanley Clarke, trained by Steve Brookshaw, in Telford, Shropshire and ridden by Tony Dobbin, Lord Gyllene led from the second fence and, jumping well, drew clear from two out to win by 25 lengths. He did give his supporters one anxious moment, through no fault of his own, when badly hampered by a loose horse approaching the water jump at the end of the first circuit, but thereafter never really looked like being beaten.

Second favourite Suny Bay, trained by Charlie Brooks and ridden by Jamie Osborne, chased the winner for most of the way, but a blunder at the third-last fence finally put paid to his chance and he was soon left behind. Camelot Knight, a 100/1 outsider, stayed on to finish third, two lengths further behind, with 40/1 chance Buckboard Bounce a similar distance back in fourth place.

Sent off at 14/1, Lord Gyllene completed the Grand National Course in time of nine minutes and 5.9 seconds. Brookshaw, who, at the time, was in just his second year as a National Hunt trainer, later said of his victory, “It was my 15 minutes of fame.The biggest day of my life.”

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.”