Grand National Results

Grand National 1984 Results

Admin November 27, 2025 No Comments

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

Admin November 27, 2025 No Comments

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.

Grand National 1982 Results

Admin November 27, 2025 No Comments

The 1982 Grand National, run on good going on April 3, 1982, featured 39 runners, of which just eight completed the course. One who didn’t was Aldaniti, who was sent off at 12/1 to follow up his fairytale-like victory in 1981, but was one of no fewer than 10 horses who fell, or were brought down, at the very first fence. All told, there were 22 casualties on the first circuit and, when Good Prospect refused at the seventeenth fence, just 16 horses headed out into the country second time around.

In a decimated field, victory went to the 7/1 favourite, Grittar, trained by Frank Gilman and ridden by amateur Dick Saunders, who, at the age of 48, became the oldest jockey to win the Grand National. Take nothing away from the winner, though. As noted by BBC commentator Sir Peter O’Sullevan, “Grittar strides into the final furlong and is already being acclaimed as the National Hero of 1982.” The nine-year-old strode over the finishing line 15 lengths ahead of his nearest pursuer, Hard Outlook, with his ears pricked, and a further distance back to the third horse home, Loving Words. Indeed, his winning time of 9 minutes and 12.6 seconds was, at the time, the second fastest in Grand National history, albeit over 10 seconds slower than the course record, 9 minutes and 1.9 seconds, set by Red Rum back in 1973.

The 1982 Grand National was also notable for the achievement of Geraldine Rees, who, in finishing a distant last of eight on 66/1 chance Cheers, became the first female jockey to complete the course in the Grand National. A capable amateur rider, she said later, “It was absolutely thrilling. It was the most wonderful feeling to finish. I was pretty exhausted, but it was a fantastic day.”

Grand National 1980 Results

Admin November 26, 2025 No Comments

The 1980 Grand National, run on heavy going on March 29, 1980, proved to be an attritional affair, in which just four of the 30 starters finished and came home at wide margin intervals. Indeed,the winning time, 10 minutes and 17.4 seconds, was the slowest since Quare Times won in a time of 10 minutes and 19.2 seconds, under similarly testing conditions, 25 years earlier.

As noted by BBC commentator Sir Peter O’Sullevan, the race produced a historic result, too, insofar as winning jockey Charlie Fenwick became just the second American amateur since World War II – after Tommy Smith, aboard Jay Trump, in 1965 – to win the Grand National. Fenwick rode Ben Nevis, whom he had previously trained and ridden to back-to-back victories in the Maryland Hunt Cup in 1977 and 1978, but who had subsequently been transferred to Tim Forster in Letcombe Bassett, near Wantage, Oxforshire.

On his first attempt in the Grand National, in 1979, Ben Nevis was sent off a well-fancied 14/1 chance, but was brought down, along with half a dozen rivals, at The Chair and, although remounted, was pulled up shortly afterwards. In 1980, as a 12-year-old, and still a maiden after 12 starts on British soil, he was sent off at 40/1, but avoided mishaps and eventually came home in splendid isolation, winning comfortably by 20 lengths. Rough And Tumble finished second, 10 lengths ahead of The Pilgarlic in third and a further 15 lengths ahead of Royal Stuart in fourth, and last, place.

Reflecting on the return of Ben Nevis to Letcombe Bassett the following morning, Fenwick said later, “There’s only two streets on the town, but it was crowded. He paraded through there. He loved it. It was all very special.” Ben Nevis was retired to the Maryland farm of his jockey, where he lived until he was 27 years old.