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.