Facts & Figures Facts & Figures It is illegal for anyone aged under 18 to gamble Facts & Figures Records The first race was held in 1839, but it started in inauspicious circumstances, going off two hours late after confusion over weighing procedures. The aptly named, and 5-1 favourite, Lottery came home first. The 1929 National featured the most starters in the race when 66 horses lined up. The smallest field was in 1883 when just 10 faced the starter. The fastest ever time is the 8 minutes 47.8 seconds Mr Frisk recorded in taking victory in 1990. The slowest time is the 14m 53s it took Lottery to win the first National in 1839. The smallest number of finishers was in 1928 when Tipperary Tim, a 100-1 outsider, was the first of two past the post. The greatest number of horses to finish was 23 in 1984. Hallo Dandy, ridden by Neale Doughty, was the winner. 17 completed last season.

The 1997 Grand National, which was won by Lord Gyllene, was the 150th running of the race at Aintree and Sir Peter O'Sullevan's 50th and final commentary for the BBC. 2013 saw the first screening of the race by Channel 4. The shortest price winner was Poethlyn at 11-4 in 1919. The Course The first five Grand National's included one jump that was a stone wall. It was situated where the water jump now stands. Becher's Brook earned its name when a top jockey, Captain Martin Becher, took shelter in the brook after being unseated. "Water tastes disgusting without the benefits of whisky" he reflected. The Chair is the tallest fence at 5ft 2ins, and the broadest. The fence got its name as it was once alongside the seat used by the distance judge. The fences at Aintree are made up of spruce from the Lake District. The cost of the building work is tens of thousands of pounds and takes a month to complete. As well as horse racing, Aintree has also hosted a European and five British Grand Prix.

Stirling Moss won his first Grand Prix in Liverpool in 1955. The change seemed to work in 2014 as no horse lost his jockey until the Canal Turn, although there were plenty of early casualties last year. Horses Red Rum is the most successful horse, having won the Grand National three times: 1973, 1974 and 1977. The oldest winning horse is Peter Simple, aged 15 (1853); the youngest winning horses were Alcibiade (1865), Regal (1876), Austerlitz (1877), Empress (1880), Lutteur III (1909), all aged 5. Abd-El-Kader was the first horse to win back-to-back Nationals, in 1850 and 1851. The Colonel, (1869 & 1870), Reynoldstown (1935 & 1936) and Red Rum (1973 & 1974) have also retained the crown. Can Many Clouds join this elite club this year?

Moiffa won in 1904 - having disappeared a year earlier. On a trip to Liverpool from New Zealand, Moiffa's ship was shipwrecked. The horse was presumed lost at sea before turning up on an outcrop south of Ireland. The legendary Golden Miller won in 1934 and became the only horse to complete the Cheltenham Gold Cup-Grand National double in the same season. Garrison Savannah narrowly failed to emulate the feat in 1991. Manifesto has run in more races than any other horse. Between 1895 and 1904, he ran in eight races, winning two and coming third on three occasions. He only failed to finish once. Two Russian horses, Reljef and Grifel, competed in the 1961 Grand National, but neither finished. Horses from Hungary, the Czech Republic and Norway have also run in previous Grand Nationals, although all with similarly disappointing results.

Hungarian chaser Buszke was pulled up in 1868, while Gyi Lovam, the first Czechoslovakian challenger in 1931, came to grief at Becherï¿½s, was remounted but fell again four fences later. The Czech-trained Essex, Fraze and Quirinus all carried automatic top-weight in the 1980s and 1990s but failed to complete. The 2000 renewal saw the first Norwegian-trained runner in the shape of Trinitro, but he got no further than the first fence where he fell. Japanese thoroughbred, Fujino-O captured four consecutive renewals of the prestigious Nakayama Daishogai in his homeland before being sent to Britain to be prepared for Aintree by trainer Fulke Walwyn. The seven year-old was given the automatic top-weight of 12st and failed to get competitive under his welter burden in 1966, eventually refusing under Jeff King.

Five winners were bred in France ï¿½ Alcibiade (1865), Reugny (1874), Lutteur III (1909), Mon Mome (2009) and Neptune Collonges (2012). Mely Moss, who was runner-up to Papillon in the 2000 Grand National and the 1996 and 2015 runners-up Encore Un Peu and Saint Are, were also French breds. In 1998, Earth Summit, owned by a six-strong partnership, became the first winner of the Grand National who was also successful in both the Scottish and Welsh Grand Nationals. Only three greys have won the Grand National - The Lamb (1868 and 1871), Nicolaus Silver (1961) and Neptune Collonges (2012). Suny Bay finished second to Lord Gyllene in 1997 and filled the same spot behind Earth Summit in 1998. King Johns Castle was second in 2008.

Thirteen mares have won the Grand National, but the most recent was Nickel Coin back in 1951. Since then, the mares Gentle Moya (2nd 1956), Tiberetta (3rd 1957 and 2nd 1958), Miss Hunter (3rd 1970), Eyecatcher (3rd 1976 and 1977), Auntie Dot (3rd 1991), Ebony Jane (4th 1994) and Dubacilla (4th 1995) have all finished in the first four.

The complete list of winning mares is: Charity (1841), Miss Mowbray (1852), Anatis (1860), Jealousy (1861), Emblem (1863), Emblematic (1864), Casse Tete (1872), Empress (1880), Zoedone (1883), Frigate (1889), Shannon Lass (1902), Sheila's Cottage (1948) and Nickel Coin (1951). In 1923, Sergeant Murphy became the first US bred horse to win the race. He is also the joint-second oldest horse to win, at age 13, alongside Why Not (1884). The US bred Battleship, son of the famous Man o' War, became the first (and so far only) horse to have won both the Grand National (in 1938) and the American Grand National (which he won four years earlier). 1991 was the seventh and final year that the Grand National was sponsored by Seagram.

Aptly, the race was won by a horse named Seagram, bred in New Zealand. 1997 saw another New Zealand-bred winner in Lord Gyllene. Jockeys Tony McCoy is the most experienced jockey in the history of the National - his final ride in 2015 was his 20th National. McCoy won his only National on Don't Push It in 2010. He took the record from Tom Olliver who rode in 19 Nationals - winning three - despite spending time behind bars in a debtor's prison. In 2016 Richard Johnson will ride in the National for the 20th consecutive year since Celtic Abbey became his first mount in 1997 (unseating him at The Chair). Johnson has twice been runner-up, on What's Up Boys (2002) and Balthazar King two years ago, but is yet to win. George Stevens is the most successful jockey in the history of the National with five wins. His final triumph came in 1870 on The Colonel. Stevens died three months after finishing sixth in the 1871 race.

Together with the Lincoln Handicap run on the Flat at Doncaster, the Grand National forms leg two of the ï¿½Spring Doubleï¿½. The only jockey to have won both contests is Dave Dick, who captured the Lincoln on Gloaming in 1941 and the Grand National on E.S.B. in 1956. Bruce Hobbs is the youngest jockey to have ever won the race. The 17-year-old triumphed aboard Battleship in 1938. The late Dick Saunders is the oldest ever winner of the Grand National, partnering Grittar to victory in 1982. Saunders was 48 at the time. He was the first member of the Jockey Club to partner a Grand National winner. Brian Fletcher (1968 Red Alligator, 1973 and 1974 Red Rum) shares a 20th century record with the legendary Jack Anthony (1911 Glenside, 1915 Ally Sloper, 1920 Troytown), both jockeys having ridden three National winners. Plenty of riders have won the Grand National on their first attempt.

The most recent are Ryan Mania (2013 Auroras Encore), Liam Treadwell (2009 Mon Mome), Niall ï¿½Slippersï¿½ Madden (2006 Numbersixvalverde), Ruby Walsh (2000 Papillon), Jason Titley (1995 Royal Athlete), Nigel Hawke (1991 Seagram), Jimmy Frost (1989 Littler Polveir), Dick Saunders (1982 Grittar) and Maurice Barnes (1979 Rubstic). Ruby Walsh holds the best record of current jockeys, having won the Grand National twice, on Papillon in 2000 and Hedgehunter in 2005. Jockey William Watkinson recorded the first riding success for Australia in 1926. He was killed at Bogside, Scotland, less than three weeks after winning the Grand National. Prince Karl Kinsky, an Austro-Hungarian nobleman, was the first jockey from outside Britain and Ireland to ride when he made a winning debut on board his own mare Zoedone in 1883.

Tsuyoshi Tanaka, the son of a champion boxer, became the first Japanese jockey to ride in the Grand National in 1995, although his taste of the Aintree experience proved to be brief as he fell at the first fence on The Committee. American amateur Tim Durant was 68 when 15th on Highlandie in 1968 (although he remounted at Becherï¿½s second time). In 2012, Richard Johnson beat the record for the most rides in the National without a win. He has now ridden in the race 19 times without bettering the runner up spot in 2002 on Whatï¿½s Up Boys. There are 12 other riders who have never won (or have not as yet won) the National, despite having had more than 12 rides in the race.

They are: David Casey (1997-2015): finished third once in 15 attempts; Jeff King (1964ï¿½1980): finished third once in 15 attempts; Robert Thornton (1997ï¿½to date): never in first three in 14 attempts; Bill Parvin (1926ï¿½1939): finished second once in 14 attempts; Tom Scudamore (2001-2015): never in first three in 14 attempts; Graham Bradley (1983ï¿½1999): finished second once in 14 attempts; Chris Grant (1980ï¿½1994): finished second three times in 13 attempts; Stan Mellor (1956ï¿½1971): finished second once in 13 attempts; David Nicholson (1957ï¿½1973): never in first three in 13 attempts; George Waddington (1861ï¿½1882): finished second once in 13 attempts; Walter White (1854ï

¿½1869): finished second once in 13 attempts; Andrew Thornton (1996-2013): never in first three in 13 attempts.

Peter Scudamore technically lined up for thirteen Grand Nationals without winning but the last of those was the void race of 1993, which meant that he officially competed in twelve Nationals. Many other well-known jockeys have failed to win the Grand National. These include champion jockeys such as Terry Biddlecombe, John Francome, Josh Gifford, Stan Mellor, Jonjo O'Neill (who never finished the race) and Fred Rimell. Three jockeys who led over the last fence in the National but lost the race on the run-in ended up as television commentators: Lord Oaksey (on Carrickbeg in 1963), Norman Williamson (on Mely Moss in 2000), and Richard Pitman (on Crisp in 1973). Pitman's son Mark also led over the last fence, only to be pipped at the post when riding Garrison Savannah in 1991. Female Jockeys Since Charlotte Brew became the first in 1977, female jockeys have participated in 19 Grand National's. Brew attracted huge media attention when partnering her own horse Barony Fort.

She was a guest on the BBC Sports Personality of the Year show and the Daily Mirror arranged a day-trip on Concorde to Washington. She was also unseated in the 1982 race. Geraldine Rees became the first to complete the course (albeit in last place) in 1982. She fell at the first a year later and went on to train for 12 years in Lancashire, before retiring in 2010. In 2012 Katie Walsh (sister of two-time winner Ruby Walsh) achieved the best placing by a woman to date - 3rd place on Seabass. In 2013, she rode that same horse when he was sent off as favourite, but he could only finish 13th. She also led up Papillon, when trained by her father and ridden by Ruby to win in 2000. National winning trainer, Venetia Williams, also rode in the race, falling at Becherï¿½s first time when riding 200-1 chance Marcolo in 1988.

Nina Carberry, now assistant to trainer Noel Meade, is the most experienced female rider, having finished on four of her five starts. Gee Armytage had to pull up her aptly-named mount, Gee-A, in 1988. A dual Cheltenham Festival-winning rider, she is the sister of Marcus Armytage - rider of the 1990 winner Mr Frisk - and became personal assistant to multiple champion jump jockey A P McCoy. Rosemary Henderson finished fifth when aged 51 on her own 100/1 shot Fiddlers Pike in 1994. She subsequently wrote a book, ï¿½Road To The Nationalï¿½, about her exploits. There was huge media interest in Carrie Ford when she finished fifth in 2005 on Forest Gunner, trained by her husband Richard. Ford, then 33, had given birth to her daughter Hannah 10 weeks earlier.

Here is the complete record of lady jockeys to date: Year Tony McCoy: No horse has won Gold Cup and a Grand National in 78 years | Sport | The Guardian Tony McCoy Tony McCoy: No horse has won Gold Cup and a Grand National in 78 years The 16-time champion is targeting Golden Miller's Grand National and Gold Cup double of 1934 and says he will retire when he fails to retain the jockeys' championship AP McCoy, the 16-time champion jockey, counts all his winners and forgets the fallers. Photograph: Tom Jenkins for the Guardian Monday 9 April 2012 18.00 EDT First published on Monday 9 April 2012 18.00 EDT Share on Messenger Close The cold seeps deep into our bones, and darkness begins to roll across Lambourn, the small village which calls itself the Valley of the Racehorse, but Tony McCoy is already high in the sunlit hills of his latest ambition.

"You've got to dream, don't you," the gaunt and pale champion jockey says as, his eyes flashing with piercing intensity, he confirms that, on Saturday, he will attempt to complete the rare double of winning both the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Grand National in the same year on the same horse. McCoy plans to ride Synchronised, "an ugly duckling", to victory in the Grand National over the brutal jumps of Aintree. Last month McCoy produced one of the supreme performances of his extraordinary career when he transferred his own courage and resolve into Synchronised's surprising win in the Gold Cup. "It's what makes racing," McCoy says, "chasing down the impossible. No horse has won a Gold Cup and a Grand National in 78 years. The last horse to do it was Golden Miller in 1934. That's a huge pull for me. You could take the easy option and not run him. But you've got to try and do things that people haven't done before – or haven't done in a very long time.

We're going to give it a right good go." We're on familiar McCoy territory – for no other British sportsman can rival his bone-breaking commitment or draining addiction to winning. Yet an Easter afternoon in Lambourn also strips away the iron man and reveals a warm and funny father, a camel-rider and a riveting talker. In between racing back and forth to apologise for making me wait, McCoy entertains the masses in the beautiful, chalky Berkshire countryside. He and other hungover jockeys, still reeling from their drunken night out at the Lesters, horse-racing's answer to the Oscars, take to the camels, small ponies and giant rolling balls as they try to beat each other at Lambourn's annual Open Day. McCoy is consumed as ever. He wins the camel race. He then ensures his team win the overall tomfoolery prize. We walk around afterwards, only for McCoy to be besieged by people. His wife, Chanelle, and their four-year-old daughter, Eve, eventually lead us back to his car. McCoy grins when asked if Chanelle dragged him on to the dance-floor at 4.30 the previous morning.

"Chanelle … Chanelle," he sighs. "We all had a good night. Chanelle definitely had a great night." Eve McCoy, meanwhile, cries when she realises her dad is staying behind, to talk, rather than returning home with her. McCoy looks wounded – but assorted small children chant his name in farewell. "Bye AP," they shout. Then, getting serious, we sit on the bonnet of a random car for this interview. It's only much later that we slide off and head for the gallops. All the while, McCoy talks about his compelling tilt at the Gold Cup and Grand National double. Can he really win on Synchronised? "I think I can," McCoy says. "If he jumps well, Synchronised can definitely win the National. I'm out to smash statistics and break records. It would be amazing if we did it …" He shakes his head, reminding himself that "would be" is a meaningless phrase. It seems typical of McCoy, this grittiest of sporting icons, that he should attempt such a feat on a relatively unimpressive horse. "There's not a lot of presence or stature about him," McCoy says of Synchronised.

"He's the sort of horse that, if you had 500 to choose from at the sales, he'd probably be the last you'd pick. He's the ugly duckling. But he's a winner. He'll keep digging when others give in. He's got a lot more heart and courage than talent or ability. He's a survivor. A grafter. Actually, he's a survivor and a surpriser. He's also a lot better than Don't Push It." Two years ago McCoy, at last, won the National on Don't Push It. He now has the taste for an even more significant victory. "Synchronised came out of the Gold Cup in fantastic shape and we've got four weeks between the races. It's possible." McCoy never trades in empty promises. He deals in hard facts and gut instinct. That combination has brought him 16 successive champion jockey titles. He will win his 17th later this month. "It's all over. I'm 50 ahead. That's why I took a little golfing holiday in Portugal with the boys [the former jump-jockeys Mick Fitzgerald and Carl Llewellyn and the Flat-racing jockey Richard Hughes] last week.

The new season starts on 29 April and I want to be fresh. I want next season's title even more than this season's." Pausing to consider his unquenched desire, McCoy says: "Being champion jockey is by far the most important thing in the world to me – apart from my family. If I lost the jockeys' championship I wouldn't ride again. I've got no intention of losing it. You know, riding 289 winners in a season [in 2001–02] is my greatest achievement – without a doubt. But I'd love 300 winners one season. This year I thought I was on target. I really thought it might be possible. And then I got that 10-day suspension at Wetherby. You need a lot of luck for 300 winners …" His more immediate aim is to become the first man to ride 4,000 winners in National Hunt. "I'm around 3,700-and-something. I keep telling [his former trainer] Martin Pipe I'm going to break his record of 4,182 winners. I never forget that one.

Take 41 and double it. 4,182. Martin better feel worried. I'm after him." It's easy to toss an outrageous number at McCoy. Could he ride 5,000 winners? "Yes. If I was a Flat jockey. Definitely. If I was a Flat jockey I'd ride until I was 50. But you can't do that over jumps. I'm just thinking about 4182." McCoy concedes that he's fallen 700 times. "I don't count the falls," he says. "Just the winners." Earlier this year, he suffered one of his worst injuries. "At Taunton I was lying on the ground, sore, and my initial reaction was: 'Fuck it, you got me, horse. You got me.' It felt the hardest a horse could fall on me. The doctor got there and I couldn't get up. I could hardly breathe. He said: 'We'll get the stretcher for you.' I said: 'Fuck, no. I've just broken some ribs.' "He said: 'Look, you can't move. We'll get the stretcher.' I refused. A stretcher for broken ribs?

That would be embarrassing. I got up – but we didn't know then I had broken two ribs at the front and five at the back. I'd punctured my lung. Now I understand why I could hardly stand and breathe." McCoy remains thoughtful – despite the raw language. "You get used to the pain. When I break some bones I tell the doc: 'Look, it's broken. Give me morphine.' I broke my arm in 2003 and it was hanging off. I was in agony but I got the doc to give me gas and air and I walked out of the ambulance saying, 'I'm all right now.' I'm not going to die from a broken arm. A punctured lung was trickier. But that wasn't going to kill me either. The only parts of my body I respect are my head and my back. I was in trouble [and in danger of paralysis] a few years ago when I crushed my T9 and T10 vertebrae and fractured both sides of the T12. I couldn't get up that time. But I was racing seven-and-a-half weeks later." Such sobering detail explains why a perennial champion remains so humble.

McCoy shrugs: "We're all the same in the weighing room. As jockeys, mutual respect and humility are important. There's no space for jealousy or arrogance with so much danger. Every time you go out there you know there's a fair chance one of you will end up in the back of an ambulance. How can you be arrogant as a jump jockey? The ambulance will get you at some point." For anyone who has never met him, or who thinks people in jump racing are cruel, there would perhaps be surprise at seeing how McCoy's face twitches when he thinks of the friends and horses he has lost. "I've cried my eyes out loads of times over horses that have died. Wichita Lineman was my favourite-ever horse and I rode him on the day he died. I cried over him. It was even worse when mates died while racing. I started at Toby Balding's yard with Richard Davis, in 1996. He and his family were so good to me and I can never forget the day Richard died. The horse [whose fall caused Davis's death at Southwell in 1996] was Mr Sox. A chestnut horse, with a white face.

I can see him now. I can see Richard now. It feels like yesterday – it's that close." The hurt in McCoy is so real that, for a moment, I imagine that chestnut horse with a white face, the sweetly-named Mr Sox. This is McCoy at his most moving – the human being inside the battered body. And, at 37, he is bluntly honest. McCoy does not flinch when admitting that, before they were married, he goaded Chanelle into giving up smoking. "I had a lot of demons. It's not a very nice word. But I was very obsessive. I went through stages when, if I wasn't having a good time, then no one else anywhere near me was going to have a good time. It's best I'm truthful now. It's the way I was. People think things are nice and rosy and all prim and proper but it's not always like that. It's not always rosy on the outside – or the inside. "But there's no such thing as having a shit day anymore – it doesn't wash with Eve. It's a totally different mindset now to what it used to be. That's for the best.

Things still grate on me and annoy me – but not like before." The day after he won the National in 2010, McCoy was photographed carrying Eve in his arms. She held up a sign that said, McCoy remembers, "My daddy's the best jockey." McCoy laughs: "Ruby Walsh said: 'She's a very good writer for a two-year-old.'" McCoy is now stalked by talk of retirement. "I never used to think about it until I won the National. Now I get asked about it a lot. I've won all the races I wanted. But I'm very lucky and unlucky at the same time. I don't work. I just do what I absolutely love to do. But I'm unlucky in the sense I keep asking myself: 'How can I give this up? How can I replace it?' I can't." He brightens when we move on to a comparable figure in British sport. Even if he resists such glib analogies only Sir Alex Ferguson can outstrip McCoy for longevity and match his thirst for winning. "No matter what anyone says about him, Fergie is a fucking genius. I hate that word – genius is so overused.

But Fergie's a genius - because, let's face it, Man U are shit right now. They're a shit team. If Fergie had Man City they'd be 15 fucking points clear by now. I'm an Arsenal fan, but I've got to know Fergie and it doesn't matter that he's 70. He'll be there another five years. What's he going to do? Sit at home?" McCoy will turn 38 early next month and, poignantly, even with the Gold Cup and the National double uppermost in his mind, he thinks of another fighter. "I hope to God I can do what Joe Calzaghe did. I have so much respect for him. Joe Calzaghe retired as the undisputed, undefeated champion. He could've carried on but he knew. It was time. I'd like to do the same." And then, after chatting a while longer and shaking hands, McCoy gives a little wave. Walking down the darkening road he cuts a solitary figure but, looking over his shoulder, he also seems touchingly happy. "You never know," he shouts out, thinking once more of the National.

"Anything's possible …" Grand National Tips Free Bets AP McCoy's ride looks one to beat at Aintree - No Comments AP McCoy won the Grand National for the first time in 2010 aboard Don’t Push It, sporting the colours of JP McManus. History could be about to repeat itself two years on as McCoy is set to get the leg up on the well-supported Synchronised – the horse he won the Cheltenham Gold Cup on in March, as Stan James offer long odds of 8/1 and a free bet worth £10 for all punters to spend on the big race. In what was a far from vintage renewal of the Cheltenham showpiece, Jonjo O’Neill had his charge spot on for the race and the nine-year-old showed great guts rather than class to land the race in front of the 66-1 shot The Giant Bolster. Stan James will offer free bets worth £10/€10 to spend on the Grand National!

Limited availibility – exclusive to SqueakyBumTime.com Synchronised is not your usual Gold Cup winner, in the fact his game is focused more on determination and heart rather than your traditional Gold Cup classy-type of winner that jumps impeccably and is built like a brick wall. His type of racing was always going to suit the trials and tribulations of a Grand National rather than a Gold Cup, so it’s no surprise to see the horse now ante-post favourite for the National as is he is likely to be 6lbs well-in following the Cheltenham win. The history books are against McCoy’s ride from landing the National however, as Golden Miller in 1934 was the last horse to win chasing’s two biggest prizes in the same season. Such is the unlikeliness of a horse doing the double, Master Oats was the last to even attempt the Gold Cup-Grand National double all the way back in 1995. After winning the Cheltenham showpiece by 15 lengths he then couldn’t quite win the National, finishing a creditable fifth.

Since Golden Miller though, the closest any of come to the prestigious double was Garrison Savannah in 1991, who narrowly won at Cheltenham before finishing a brilliant second at Aintree. As mentioned though, Synchronised will be more suited to Aintree rather than Cheltenham and if any horse is capable of joining Golden Miller in the record books, Synchronised could be the one to achieve it. Grand National 2013: Aintree focus with Cornelius Lysaght - BBC Sport BBC Sport Grand National 2013: Aintree focus with Cornelius Lysaght By Cornelius Lysaght From the section Horse Racing Share this page John Smith's Grand National Meeting Venue: Sat 6 April 16:15 Coverage: Commentary on BBC Radio 5 live or 5 live sports extra (also available online and on mobile devices). Saturday live text commentary on BBC Sport website. Channel 4 TV Since a horse called Lottery, the favourite as it happens, won the first Grand National in 1839, the race has become sport's greatest game of roulette.

With a large field, 30 obstacles and a near four-and-a-half-mile course, little is predictable, making it much more a test of punters' lucky streaks than their knowledge of the formbook. Here, I don't so much offer you tips on which horse will win - though to me Imperial Commander looks tasty - but on a few things to be looking out for on and around the big day. The need for some Aintree romance Following the well-documented deaths of two horses in each of the last two years, the Grand National finds itself in the sharpest of focus in 2013 and with a reputation tarnished in some quarters. There is no doubting its general popularity, with literally hundreds of millions worldwide following their fancies, but equally the race's opponents are more and more vocal. If supporters and organisers had a magic wand to wave, they would wish for a running free of serious incident, and with a good, old fashioned Aintree fairytale lurking by the finish. Trainer Rebecca Curtis And 30 years after Jenny Pitman became the first woman trainer to lift the famous prize with Corbiere, many believe a female participant might again capture the imagination by taking top honours.

Two that stand out are Rebecca Curtis, trainer of Teaforthree, a contender of some poignancy having been ridden to Cheltenham Festival glory last year by the jockey JT McNamara, who recently suffered paralysis following a serious fall. The other is Katie Walsh, rider of last year's third-place finisher Seabass. Seabass and Katie Walsh want to reel it in Relive the 2012 Grand National, and over the penultimate fence the excitement that a woman jockey might win it at last reached fever pitch as Seabass and Katie Walsh took the lead. At the final obstacle they were still bang in contention, and were only run out of it in the very closing stages by first Sunnyhillboy and then the eventual winner Neptune Collonges. After that experience and two promising runs this season, Seabass, trained by Walsh's TV pundit father Ted - who also saddles Colbert Station - is a major fancy. In 2012, Walsh, 28, became the 15th female jockey to ride in the Grand National since Charlotte Brew made history on Barony Fort in 1977, and Seabass's third place is the best finishing position.

Success would catapult champion jockey Ruby Walsh's younger sister to sports superstardom not only across Britain and her native Ireland, but all around the globe. That said, the dual Cheltenham Festival winner can be said to know all about Grand National glory having 'led up' her family-trained Papillon when victorious in 2000. The recession-busting Grand National Bookmakers estimate that in excess of £150m will be bet on the Aintree feature, with On His Own likely to jump off as one of the shortest-priced favourites in modern times. In 2012, the horse, successful in a good quality hurdle race at home in Ireland in February, was moving menacingly when falling at Becher's Brook on the second circuit. A combination of that form and the fact that he represents top trainer Willie Mullins, and is ridden by two-time winner Ruby Walsh, makes On His Own irresistible for many punters. Williams fancied to win - at last South Wales-based Evan Williams has a pretty remarkable Grand National record having saddled just six runners, of which four have ended up 'in the frame'; the other two didn't get round.

Hopes are high, however, that Cappa Bleu, one of those fourth places when rather luckless and beaten by 12 lengths in 2012, can provide the horsepower to finally put this Williams team on the winners' podium. The encouragement comes from last year and from a fine effort when runner-up in a decent race at Ascot in February, with fellow Aintree hopefuls Saint Are and The Rainbow Hunter just behind. The trainer reports Cappa Bleu's build-up to the big race has gone according to plan, and stable jockey Paul Maloney will again be on board. Meanwhile Williams's Grand National stalwart State Of Play, whose race statistics read fourth, third and fourth before unseating his rider early on in 2012, has been retired. Talking of stats, all of the Welsh-trained runners have to overcome history because there has been no winner trained in Wales since Kirkland, the sole one to date, in 1905.

Twiston-Davies team look for command performance Nigel Twiston-Davies, the only current trainer to have won two Grand Nationals, with Earth Summit (1998) and Bindaree (2002), looks for a third with top-weight Imperial Commander. Grand National approximate odds 7-1 On His Own, 10-1 Seabass, 11-1 Cappa Bleu, Colbert Station, 14-1 Chicago Grey, Sunnyhillboy, Teaforthree, 16-1 Imperial Commander, Join Together, 25-1 Ballabriggs, Balthazar King, Rare Bob, 33-1 Across the Bay, Roberto Goldback, 40-1 Always Waining, Big Fella Thanks, Harry The Viking, Romanesco, Soll, Treacle 50-1 Bar Twiston-Davies's jockey son Sam is due to take the place of the suspended Paddy Brennan on the 12-year-old, the winner of the 2010 Cheltenham Gold Cup.

Back from a long period of injury, Imperial Commander was primed to try to regain his Gold Cup in March but was then forced to miss the race because of ill-health. Supporters, however, believe that turn of events could ultimately be a blessing in disguise. Younger legs might well have found out the veteran at Cheltenham but his experience, quality and sure-jumping are ideal for Aintree, and will help to cancel out the weight burden. Only one horse has completed the Gold Cup/Grand National double in the same season - Golden Miller (1934) - but Imperial Commander attempts to emulate 1975 winner L'Escargot, who had won the Gold Cup twice in previous years. Sir Alex Ferguson after more silverware Sir Alex Ferguson loves to win on Merseyside, and not just when Manchester United are playing Everton or Liverpool. His horse, What A Friend - pulled up in the 2011 Grand National - had helped to ease the pain of being knocked out of Europe by Bayern Munich a year earlier when winning Aintree's Bowl Chase the very next day.

Memorably, Ferguson was in the winners' circle, all smiles, hailing the success as a "great release from the grind of football." What A Friend, trained by Paul Nicholls, is due back at the Aintree Festival this year - though his target isn't yet confirmed - along with Ferguson's Harry The Viking, also under the care of Nicholls. Both will be outsiders in the Grand National but they won't be lacking support from the owner. Old friends want more of the action While the 2012 Grand National winner Neptune Collonges - a first success in the race for champion trainer Paul Nicholls - is now retired, most of the horses directly behind him are expected to return. Sunnyhillboy, the narrowest beaten runner-up in history (margin: a nose) is joined by Seabass (third) and the fourth-placed finisher, Cappa Bleu. The 2011 winner Ballabriggs, sixth behind Neptune Collonges, is back too, heading a characteristically-strong team from the stables of trainer Donald McCain, son of race legend 'Ginger'.

Supporters of well-fancied Chicago Grey will hope for better luck, having been brought down 12 months ago. Also returning after missing 2012 is old favourite Big Fella Thanks, who's been sixth, fourth and seventh in the past. Synchronised bids to win Gold Cup & Grand National in same year Home » Racing & Sport » International » Synchronised bids to win Gold Cup & Grand National in same year Synchronised bids to win Gold Cup & Grand National in same year Posted on April 17, 2012 Tony McCoy on Synchronised celebrates his win in the Betfred Cheltenham Gold Cup in March. The pair will be looking to make it a memorable double in the Grand National on Saturday and their price has tumbled this week as more and more punters back them for Aintree success. The John Smith’s Grand National is undoubtedly the world’s most famous race and with record prize money of £975,000, it’s also easily Britain’s richest Jumps race.

The race is over a gruelling four miles and four furlongs (7200 metres) and due off at 5.15pm (SA time) on Saturday, and will take around 10 minutes to run. Cheltenham Gold Cup hero Synchronised heads a maximum field of 40, as he bids to become the first horse since Golden Miller in 1934 to win the Gold Cup and Grand National in the same season. He is ridden by the champion jockey Tony McCoy, who won the great race in 2010 on Don’t Push It. He will face strong opposition from last year’s winner Ballabriggs, trained by Donald McCain. Ballabriggs will attempt to be the first since the legendary Red Rum, trained by McCain’s father Ginger, to land back-to-back victories in the world’s greatest steeplechase some 36 years ago. On His Own, the mount of Ruby Walsh, heads Willie Mullins’ team while the Irish jockey’s sister Katie will be aboard Seabass for their father, Ted Walsh.

Nina Carberry, who is also bidding to become the first female rider to win the race, will be aboard Organisedconfusion for her uncle, Arthur Moore. Among the other major contenders are Giles Cross, West End Rocker, Junior, Cappa Bleu, Chicago Grey and Killyglen. More than £300million is expected to be bet on the Grand National and one of the best-backed horses throughout the industry this week since the rains came has been West End Rocker, who is now as low as 11-1 from 20-1 earlier this week. However, Synchronised is the most popular choice to land the money as he ticks all the right boxes – he’s got stamina in abundance, had the quality to win a Gold Cup and has the assistance of the world’s best Jumps jockey. The chief supporting race is the Grade 1 John Smith’s Aintree Hurdle, in which Oscar Whisky and Thousand Stars, who fought out the finish last year, do battle again over two and a half miles (4000m) at 2.50pm.

The Nicky Henderson-trained Oscar Whisky got the verdict by a neck over Willie Mullins’ runner when just holding on for victory in the Grade 1 on Merseyside last April. Thousand Stars gained some revenge of sorts in the Ladbrokes World Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival when finishing one place and a length and a half in front of his old rival when fourth to Big Buck’s. However, these two are unlikely to have things all their own way as the field of six horses declared includes Champion Hurdle winner Rock On Ruby. Noel Fehily, who partnered the Paul Nicholls-trained seven-year-old at Cheltenham, will again be in the saddle. Nicholls’ stable jockey Ruby Walsh will be aboard Zarkandar, who was fifth in the Champion. Share this article:

Question: Which was the first horse to complete the Cheltenham Gold Cup-Grand National double in the same season ?
Answer: GOLDEN MILLER