The 1972 Grand National featured 42 runners, including the first three home in the 1971 renewal, Specify,. Black Secret and Astbury, the 1970 winner, Gay Trip, who had started favourite in 1971, but fallen at the first fence, and L’Escargot, who had won back-to-back renewals of the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1970 and 1971 and finished fourth in the ‘Blue Riband’ event in 1972. Indeed, despite top weight of 12st 0lb, L’Escargot was sent off 17/2 favourite on his first attempt in the Grand National. His effort, though, was short-lived, as he was unluckily knocked over at the third fence.
Despite the prevailing good to soft going, just nine of the 42 starters completed the course, but three of the first four horses home – there was, in fact, a dead-heat for third place – come from the first half a dozen in the betting. Victory went to the well-backed nine-year-old Well To Do, owned and trained by Tim Forster in Letcombe Bassett, Oxfordshire and ridden by Graham Thorner. Forster had acquired Well To Do when his previous owner, Heather Summer, died from cancer the previous year and bequethed the horse to his trainer in her will.
One of half a dozen still with a realistic chance of winning turning for home, Well To Do led over the final fence and, try as they might, his rivals failed to make any inroads in the closing stages. Terry Biddlecombe steered Gay Trip towards the stands’ side in search of better ground, but was still two lengths behind at the line, while Black Secret and General Symons dead-heated for third – the first time the judge had been unable to split placed horses in the Grand National – a further three lengths away. Forster would subsquently win the Grand National twice more, with Ben Nevis in 1980 and Last Suspect in 1985.