Red Rum | British steeplechase horse | Britannica.com British steeplechase horse Red Rum, (foaled 1965), steeplechase horse who won the Grand National at Aintree, England, an unprecedented three times, in 1973, 1974, and 1977. Red Rum with trainer Ginger McCain, 1992. UK History/Alamy Bought as a crippled seven-year-old, he was reconditioned by his trainer Ginger McCain who ran him on the sand and in the sea. In 1973, ridden by Brian Fletcher, Red Rum won his first Grand National by spurting ahead in the last 100 yards of the course to pass Crisp, who had held the lead during most of the race, and beating him by 3/4 length in the record time of 9:01.9. The next year, with 11-to-1 odds against repeating his victory, Red Rum outdistanced his nearest rival, L’Escargot, by seven lengths.

He was the only horse to win two times in a row since Reynoldstown won in 1935 and 1936. Only three weeks later, ridden by Fletcher, he entered and won the Scottish Grand National at Ayr, beating Proud Tarquin by four lengths after taking the lead with three barriers yet to go and pulling ahead in the stretch. For the next two years he placed second in the English Grand National, coming in behind L’Escargot in 1975 and behind Rag Trade in 1976. Then in 1977 the 12-year-old gelding came back to achieve a stunning third victory in the historic race. Ridden by Tommy Stack and carrying 162 pounds, Red Rum won by an astonishing 25 lengths. His owner, Noel Le Mare, won $193,800 by his horse’s three triumphs. Red Rum was retired from racing in 1978. He died in 1995.

Learn More in these related articles: Brian Fletcher Autographs | Sports, Horse Racing Brian Fletcher Autographs of Brian Fletcher Brian Fletcher (born 18 May 1947) is an English Jockey notable for riding the horse Red Rum to win the Grand National in 1973 and 1974 and for second place in 1975. He first won the Grand National at the age of 20, in 1968 riding Red Alligator. He retired in 1976 with head injury. Apart from Ernie Piggott, (Lester Piggott's grandfather) and George Stevens (who won five times in the 19th century) Brian Fletcher is the only jockey to have won the Grand National three times. Winning the Scottish National in 1974. His winning, record time on Red Rum in the 1973 Grand National was to stand for 17 years till beaten by Mr Frisk ridden by Marcus Armytage.

More about Brian Fletcher The most expensive item with a signature of Brian Fletcher (1974 Grand National racecard, Red Rum's 2nd win, SIGNED BY BRIAN FLETCHER) was sold on eBay in November 2015 for £58.31 while the cheapest item (12x8 PHOTO SIGNED BRIAN FLETCHER JOCKEY RED RUM GRAND NATIONAL JUMPS CHAMPION) found a new owner for £0.99 in February 2016. The month with the most items sold (6) was May 2013 with an average selling price of £7.90 for an autographed item of Brian Fletcher. Sold items reached their highest average selling price in November 2012 with £38.61 and the month that saw the lowest prices with £1.64 was July 2013. In average, an autographed item from Brian Fletcher is worth £4.86. Want to see more data about Brian Fletcher Memorabilia, like average selling prices or monthly news mentions? What about keeping track of the value of your collection online?

Would you like to receive an email alert when we find an autographed item by Brian Fletcher for a good price? To get access to these additional features, register first and then log in. Nothing to pay, no fees! This service is completely free! Current items with a signature of Brian Fletcher These are the most current items with a signature of Brian Fletcher that were listed on eBay and on other online stores - click here for more items . Picture Brian Fletcher (Second) - Pics, Videos, Dating, & News Brian Fletcher Male Born 1948 Brian Fletcher is an English Jockey notable for riding the horse Red Rum to win the Grand National in 1973 and 1974 and for second place in 1975. He first won the Grand National at the age of 19, in 1968 riding Red Alligator. He retired in 1976 with head injury. Apart from Ernie Piggott, and George Stevens (who won five times in the 19th century) Brian Fletcher is the only jockey to have won the Grand National three times.

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\r\n She was elected in 1981 and has served in her capacity for more than 30 years. \r\n As treasurer of the the board, Gibbons has actively volunteered with PTA for more than 40 years, has more than 45 years of experience as a volunteer with Girl Scouts, a... JockeySite.com Red Rum "The Aintree Legend", Aintree.co.uk It was almost 30 years ago that Red Rum won the first of the three races in the Grand National that earned him pride of place in the record books forever. He still remains the only horse to have won the Grand National three times, in the world famous chase at Aintree and as that statistic suggests, the great horse was a phenomenon. Bred to be a sprinter, out of a dam who was, frankly, a bit barmy, Red Rum went on to win the gruelling four and a half mile chase in 1973, 1974 and 1977, overcoming a potentially crippling foot disease.

He was sold for 400 Guineas as a yearling, yet an offer of Usd 1,000,000 was declined for him as a 13 year old, by which time Tommy Stack had every right to call him "The Aintree Horse". But the story of Red Rum's life is as strange as the best of fairytales. Red Rum's achievements are the epitome of all that makes nature laugh in the face of man's attempts at playing God. Martyn McEnery wanted to breed an inexpensive, precocious, sprinting two year old, but instead the bemused County Kilkenny-based breeder produced the three times winner of the most arduous steeplechase in the world. At his Rossenarra Stud, McEnery chose to mate his temperamental mare, Mared, with a local stallion called Quorum in the spring of 1964, for no better reason than friends of the family owned the sire. Mared had previously been branded unraceable by trainer Phonnsie O'Brien who returned the excitable filly to McEnery as a two year old.

But McEnery produced Mared to win a seven furlong race at Galway - her sole success in five starts - despite having to drench her with a bucket of water to remove the froth of sweat she worked up before even entering the parade ring. First Entry Win An average-sized bay colt was foaled on May 3, 1965, at 6 pm. A pleased McEnery expected to make a tidy profit when coming to sell him at Goffs September Sales, but fate again took a hand. The Mared colt appeared to walk stiffly behind when led into the ring to be sold, and when Tim Molony bid 400 Guineas, McEnery reluctantly allowed him to go. Molony attended the sales armed with pinpoint instructions from Maurice Kingsley, for whom he had ridden the three times winner of the Champion Hurdle, Sir Ken. Now a trainer himself, Molony was to buy for Kingsley, who was fond of gambling on his horses, an animal to win the two year old seller at Liverpool the following March.

Red Rum duly obliged.Ridden by Paul Cook, he dead-heated with Curlicue, also bred by McEnery, and sold only two lots after Red Rum. In the closing stages Red Rum had made rapid strides to catch Curlicue right on the line, going in front a stride past the post, and Molony was convinced that, given less to do early on, Red Rum would have won outright. That day, Molony had to go to 300 Guineas to buy the juvenile back, the price being forced upwards from an unknown quarter. Donald "Ginger" McCain was present at Aintree to witness the subsequent sale, but he was seeking jumpers, not a sprinter, and he walked away from the horse that would bring him fame six years later, long before the bidding began. Red Rum had been gelded after the sales and broken in patiently, with all the care that a great horseman such as Molony devotes to a young horse as a matter of course.

Aged only 20 months, he had been named by Kingsley just before New Year's Day of 1967 when all yearlings officially became two year olds; his owner took the last three letters from the names of his dam and sire, Ma-red and Quorum, to produce the now-household name. Extraordinary Resilience Red Rum ran in that first selling race before he was fully two years of age and remained in training semi-constantly for the next 11 years. It is testimony to Red Rum's extraordinary resilience that, trained to draw on his supposed precocity but then asked to continue racing until he was 13, he never lost his enthusiasm. He was busy during his career, especially when his talents were not deemed to be extraordinary. Tommy Stack, who rode Red Rum 43 times and briefly trained him, thought him "disappointing" in his early days and often handled the horse accordingly in a race - "driven out", "hard ridden", Chaseform consistently reported. Red Rum won again as a two year old and finished in the frame on three other occasions.

But although he won on his three years old debut - a seven furlong selling handicap at doncaster - he incurred his owner's displeasure when Molony was again forced to bid higher than expected to buy him in afterwards. After his next race, Molony was unexpectedly informed by the shrewd old Yorkshire trainer Bobby Renton that he had bought Red Rum on behalf of his close friend and owner, Mrs.Lurline "Muffie" Brotherton. She had been trying to win the Grand National again since 1950, when Renton sent out Freebooter in her colours, but she would sell Red Rum seven months short of realising that ambition. As a novice hurdler, Red Rum won three times and finished in the frame on five other occasions out of a total of ten starts. To the benefit of Red Rum's future as one of the all-time great steeplechasers, Molony had been schooling him over hurdles since he had been broken in. The horse also profited from a five-run sequence in which he was partnered by the same man, Paddy Broderick.

On the flat, Red Rum was ridden by eight different jockeys; over obstacle, he was ridden by 13, including new ones on his first six runs. McCain Enters Picture Red Rum recorded all of his three wins that season partnered by Broderick and, crucially, on the fast ground which he relished. Molony had long guessed that the gelding hated soft ground, and would repeatedly berate Renton for making Red Rum tackle it the following season. When an ageing Renton retired, he asked Tommy Stack to take over. Stack only juggled careers as trainer-jockey for a few months before his friend, nearby trainer Anthony Gillam, suggested that he fill the breach left when Stack handed in his training licence. But disaster struck when Red Rum acquired the debilitating bone disease pedalositis, which should have rendered him a cripple. When three separate veterinary surgeons were told, after Red Rum's triumph in the 1973 Grand National, that the horse had suffered from that affliction, they dismissed the idea as impossible.

Aware of heat in Red Rum's off-fore after racing, but encouraged by Renton, among others, that it needed only minor treatment, an uncertain Gillam had kept the horse going on a busy campaign. When he came back a brave winner from Catterick on New Year's Day in 1972 - his fourth race in a month - Red Rum was lame for several days. X-rays brought the doleful news that very few horses recovered from pedalostitis. After a course of medicine, along with intense physiotherapy, Red Rum seemed to recover. But in the 1972 Scottish Grand National, in which Red Rum finished fifth, the horse kept changing his legs in the last three-quarters of a mile, hanging unusually towards the rails, away from his damaged foot. Taxi-driver Ginger McCain, who ran a small stable behind a used-car showroom in Southport, saw the race and noted Red Rum as a potential National horse for the 84 year old Noel Le Mare, for whom McCain often begged to be allowed to train horses. Like Mrs.Brotherton, it had long been Le Mare's cherished ambition to own a Grand National winner.

He was to achieve that at the age of 84, by which time he had achieved two other ambitions, to become a millionaire and marry a beautiful woman. Lameness Solution But where McCain saw potential, Mrs.Brotherton, after months of veterinary bills, saw only expense. She sent Red Rum to Doncaster's August Sales, much to the outrage of his stable lass sandra, who announced that she would then leave her job. When she was forbidden to accompany Red Rum to the sales for fear she would betray the horse's foot problem ( which the yard had managed to keep a secret ), sandra kept to her word, quitting her job to marry instead. Gillam still retained faith an damaged to persuade Mrs.Brotherton to raise the reserve on Red Rum from 3,000 to 5,000 Guineas, but plan B involved pooling his financial resources with some friends in order to buy the horse should someone else appear ready to offer more. Gillam then believed that he wouldn't lose Red Rum. He had not reckoned upon the canny McCain.

Emboldened by a pot of 7,000 Guineas from Le Mare, McCain stepped in at 5,000 Guineas when the duelling between Gillam and Captain Tim Forster, who thought Red Rum would be a "fun horse" for his owner Mrs.Henriques, had abated.Using a trick he learned at car auctions, McCain motioned a bid of 6,000 Guineas - a huge leap upwards, calculated to scare off the opposition. It worked, and McCain, who had never bought a horse for more than 1,000 Guineas, took control of the gelding who would later change his life. But when he trotted the horse for the first time, McCain saw that Red Rum was lame. Yet again fate stepped in: Red Rum was at probably the only yard in the country where training took place on the local beach. The sea water, into which McCain banished Red Rum after viewing his hobbling horse, cured him of all his ills. Red Rum trotted out sound. Immediately things began to fall right.

Red Rum won his first five races, on ground varying from good to hard, with three different jockeys on board - Stack, Ron Barry and then Brian Fletcher -. On March 31, 1973, he started 9/1 favourite for the Grand National. First National Victory McCain gave Fletcher, with whom he now had a gentleman's agreement to ride the horse, no instructions, but the jockey planned to hunt round the first circuit before starting to ride a real race past the stands. Glenkiln, the horse whom McCain had originally meant as Le Mare's National contender until he lost his form just before Red Rum was bought, fell at the Chair. But the giant Australian chaser, Crisp, who was shouldering top weight of 12st, had built up a massive lead, although Red Rum had worked his way into second by the next circuit. Crisp appeared unstoppable but conceding 23lb to Red Rum, he slowly began to falter at the famous Elbow after being more than 15 lenghts in front of his rival at the last.

Red Rum wore Crisp down, getting up on the line to beat him by three quarters of a lenght and in a record time of 9 min 1.9 sec, knocking nearly 20 seconds off Golden Miller's previous best under 12st 2lb in 1934 - the new record would stand for the next 16 years. Red Rum was never better than in the 1973 / 74 season which undeniably lays the ghost of him being "only" a National horse. Carrying 11st 4lb, he failed by just a short head to beat Red Candle, who was receiving a stone, in the high class Henessy Gold Cup at Newbury. Never carrying less than 12st, Red Rum won four more races before collecting his second Grand National, this time carrying the maximum weight. Giving 1lb to the Cheltenham Gold Cup winner, L'Escargot, Red Rum started third favourite at 11/1, racing off a mark nearly two stone higher than his 1973 victory. He was the first to achieve the double since Reynoldstown in 1936.

But Chaseform testifies that the 1974 winner "made this look incredibly easy." Only three weeks later, Red Rum won the Scottish Grand National as the 11/8 favourite under 11st 13lb. Fletcher Split It was then presumed that, having reached a zenith, Red Rum's talent would gradually decline in keeping with the rolling years. Between the autumn of 1974 and the spring of 1976, he ran in 18 chases, winning twice and being placed seven times. But he also gallantly failed to resist first L'Escargot and then Rag Trade in the 1975 and 1976 Grand Nationals. Fletcher, once champion jockey of the north in 1967 / 68, was sinking into obscurity, having only ridden six winners by the end of January in the 1974 / 75 term. Meanwhile, McCain, bombarded with media criticism for running Red Rum too often, was called to retire the then dual Grand National winner.

After McCain deemed Fletcher to have been easy on the horse in a three-mile race at Newcastle and lost second place, the jockey told McCain to retire Red Rum. Trainer and jockey then finally parted ways. But Red Rum proved his light had not gone out when running a fine race in the Hennesy before going on to nearly wear down Rag Trade in the 1.976 Grand National. The 1976 / 77 season began dismally.After an initial small win at Carlisle, Red Rum appeared totally lacklustre in his next four races, and even McCain began to think that he might have "gone". A foul winter had waterlogged the Southport sands, making them useless for training purposes, but Red Rum finally showed something like his old sparkle in his prep race to the 1977 Grand National, the Greenall Whitley Chase at Haydock. Worries about the now 12 year old gelding unwonted bulk abated when, in his last gallop before Aintree, he dazzled McCain and assorted members of the press who had gathered to watch.

Last Aintree Win Ridden by Stack, as he had been in 1976, Red Rum tackled his fifth Grand National in 1977. In the lead from the eighth last, Red Rum appeared momentarily to have a challenger in Churchtown Boy, but the latter's mistake at the third last compared with Red Rum's foot-perfect agility soon settled things in the latter's favour. The noise of the cheering crowd was deafening as he led up the long run-in. In 1976, Red Rum gave Eyecatcher 17lb and beat her by eight lengths; in 1977, he gave her 21lb and a 31 length beating, rating an improvement at the age of 12 of two stone. The treble, five years in the making, had been achieved. Suddenly, everyone was crying. The celebrations in Southport which received the three times Grand National winner home were long and rasturous. But the greatest Aintree horse of all time was not yet finished.Up until the morning of the 1978 Grand National, Red Rum was being trained for a sixth attempt at the great race.

He had run well all season, amassing two seconds and a fourth under mighty weights in his five races. But, after his customary pre-National work-out on the day before the big race, Red Rum pulled up lame. The problem proved to be a hairline fracture and the horse had to be retired. Retired, that is, from the realm of racing.But Red Rum's career as a celebrity continued - a role to which he was as well-adapted as to tackling the Aintree fences. He thrived as the centre of attention, as anyone who saw the 1977 episode of Sports Personality of the Year Awards can testify. Hearing the voice of Tommy Stack, who was speaking from his hospital bed with a broken pelvis, Red Rum immediately pricked his ears, displaying the great intelligence and showmanship so evident in the horse throughout his life. The horse led the parade in many Grand Nationals Red Rum died on Wednesday, October 18, 1995 and was buried by the winning post on Aintree's Grand National course.

His grave is marked by an engraved stone listing his Grand National record, and a life-size bronze commemorates this legendary horse, along with a race staged at Aintree's Festival Meeting, the Martell Red Rum Chase, named in the great horse's memory. April 02, 1977 : Red Rum wins record third Grand National Introduction On this day in 1977, racehorse Red Rum wins a historic third Grand National championship at Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool, England, after taking home victory in 1973 and 1974 and finishing second in 1975 and 1976. Red Rum remains the most successful horse in the history of the Grand National, which is considered by many to be the world’s toughest steeplechase race. The first Grand National at Aintree was run on February 26, 1839. Today, the course is 4 miles 856 yards and contains 30 fences. The 1929 Grand National featured the largest number of starting horses, 66, while the 1883 event featured the smallest number, 10.

The largest number of horses to finish the event was 23 in 1984, while the smallest number was just two in 1928. The Grand National is the biggest betting horse race in Britain, as well as the one most popular with people who typically don’t follow the sport. Red Rum, a bay gelding, was foaled on May 3, 1963, at the Rossennara Stud in Kells, County Kilkenny, Ireland. His moniker was derived from the last three letters of the names of his dam and sire, Mared and Quorum. Early in his racing career, it was discovered Red Rum had a debilitating bone disease; however, trainer Ginger McCain, who bought the horse for Noel Le Mare, trained him on the sand and in the sea water at Southport, Merseyside, which apparently cured Red Rum of his foot problem. In 1973, Red Rum, ridden by jockey Brian Fletcher, won his first Grand National when he beat Crisp with a record time of 9 minutes 1.9 seconds, a number that would stand for 16 years.

Fletcher was replaced with Tommy Stack at the 1976 Grand National and on April 2, 1977, Stack rode Red Rum to his record-setting third Grand National victory. Before the race, there was speculation that 12-year-old Red Rum was too old to compete. Of the 42 horses that started the race, only nine finished the grueling course. Two horses had to be put down after falling. Red Rum was scheduled to run in the 1978 Grand National, but on the morning of the race it was determined he had a hairline fracture. The horse, age 13, was then retired from racing; however, his fame in Britain continued to grow and he made numerous publicity appearances. In October 1995, Red Rum, then 30 and in failing health, was put down. The champion horse was buried near the winning post at the Aintree track.

Article Details: April 02, 1977 : Red Rum wins record third Grand National Author April 02, 1977 : Red Rum wins record third Grand National URL Facts about Brian Fletcher - The Meaning Of The Name The Meaning Of The Name Toggle navigation Nationality: United States of America Sport: Baseball player 26 October 1988 Age: 28 For privacy reasons, we cannot provide the meaning of this celebrity's name! Instead, please find the Numerology Interpretation for that name. The Growth number corresponding to this first name is 8. Interpretation: Learn more with our free Numerology Tool Brian Fletcher was born on 26 October. Which stars are celebrating their birthday today? Check our and find out celebrities born on your birthday. Biography Brian Fletcher (born 18 May 1947) is an English Jockey notable for riding the horse Red Rum to win the Grand National in 1973 and 1974 and for second place in 1975. He first won the Grand National at the age of 19, in 1968 riding Red Alligator.

He retired in 1976 with head injury. Apart from Ernie Piggott, (Lester Piggott's grandfather) and George Stevens (who won five times in the 19th century) Brian Fletcher is the only jockey to have won the Grand National three times. Winning the Scottish National in 1974. His winning, record time on Red Rum in the 1973 Grand National was to stand for 17 years till beaten by Mr. Frisk ridden by Marcus Armytage. ^ "Birthday's today". The Telegraph. 18 May 2011. Retrieved 16 May 2014. "Mr Brian Fletcher, former jockey, 64" ^ Philip, Robert (2003-04-04). "Red Rum Remains the People's Champion". London: The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2008-09-19. ^ "Fletcher's Given a Rum Deal by Barker and Co.". The Northern Echo. 2004-05-18. Retrieved 2008-09-19.

The section "Biography" of this page contains content from the copyrighted Wikipedia article " Brian Fletcher "; that content is used under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) . You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL. Ginger McCain - Telegraph Sport Obituaries Ginger McCain Ginger McCain, the racehorse trainer, who died yesterday aged 80, won three Grand Nationals with Red Rum and then, more than quarter of a century later, took the race for a fourth time with Amberleigh House.

Ginger McCain saddled Red Rum to win the Grand National three times Photo: PA Red Rum, ridden by Tommy Stack, wins the Grand National in 1977 Photo: Sporting Pictures Ginger McCain will his son Donald Jr Photo: PA Ginger McCain saddled Red Rum to win the Grand National three times Photo: REUTERS Ginger McCain with three-time Grand National winner Red Rum Photo: GETTY IMAGES 7:31PM BST 19 Sep 2011 Comments “The Grand National,” McCain wrote in his autobiography, “is like a river running through my life.” Only Fred Rimell, the trainer whose horses were among those that challenged Red Rum at Aintree in the 1970s, won the National as often. Unlike Rimell, who won the race with four different horses, McCain’s career was synonymous with one horse. Indeed, McCain long had to put up with suggestions that his reputation had only been borne aloft by that of Red Rum. It was a taunt that the notoriously forthright trainer pretended not to mind. “I couldn’t give a toss,” he shot back. But it rankled. Famously plain-speaking, his comically exaggerated crimes against political correctness made for entertaining interviews.

Within the racing world, however, McCain suspected that his failures when it came to “kissing bottoms and bullshitting” meant that he was never “considered a really good trainer”. If his “big mouth” was at fault, he was the first to accept that he only had himself to blame. “I’ve been hoist by my own petard many times,” he mused. “But if I think a thing is not right, I have my say. I don’t do it to offend. I just say it as I see it.” His unvarnished opinions resounded to most notorious effect in 2005, when he suggested that “horses do not win Nationals [when] ridden by women”. Carrie Ford, who went on to finish fifth in that year’s race, was, he said, “a broodmare”. Related Articles Toby Balding 26 Sep 2014 In fact women in general were often the targets of his barbs, particularly if they dared step too far into his world. He dismissed one woman starter as a “silly cow with the hat and the skirt”. But it was clear that, like his most famous horse, McCain liked to perform when in the limelight.

When he remarked that “there are women I respect. I can’t think of any, apart from the Queen, but there must be some,” only the most determined to be offended took him seriously. He was serious about his horses, however, and like to remind his detractors within racing that when he had got his hands on Red Rum in the August 1972 sales (for 6,000 guineas), the bay was a largely unfancied gelding with what a succession of vets considered an incurable bone disease – pedalostitis. At the time McCain’s prospects as a trainer were equally dim. He was making his living as a taxi-driver in Southport, where he kept a small stable between a used-car showroom and a Chinese restaurant. Having seen Red Rum run in the Scottish Grand National he convinced a client, Noel Le Mare, to take a chance on the horse. He was already in Le Mare’s debt: “As a taxi driver, I used to drive Noel Le Mare to a dinner-dance in Southport every Saturday night,” McCain said. “We used to talk about the National and he said it was his great ambition to win it.

His first National horse was Glenkiln, but I cocked up the entry and he couldn’t run. Noel was then 85 and I thought I was a right pillock and he’d probably never live long enough to have another runner in the race.” Initially it seemed certain that, even if Le Mare lived to his 100th year, he would not see Red Rum at Aintree. The horse was increasingly lame. But McCain had an idea. “I used to see an old cripple of a horse pulling a cart for the shrimpers. He was a crock but when he went into the water he was a different horse. That stuck in my mind.” The trainer started exercising his new charge on the sands of Southport beach. More importantly, he let the horse frolic in the surf too. “It had taken me years to realise that I had the best natural all-weather gallop and the best swimming pool,” McCain said. The combined training regimen had a miraculous effect, and soon the sight of Red Rum being led down the middle of the road to the beach became familiar in the coastal town: “He would always walk up the middle of the road, though sideways on.

It was like a gunman coming out on to the street in the Wild West and bystanders scurrying to the sidewalk. The road just emptied.” In the 1972/73 season Red Rum erupted onto the scene, winning six of his nine races. Although bred as a sprinter on the flat, it was soon apparent that his staying power and remarkable jumping ability made him a contender on the longest, toughest National Hunt courses. By the time of the 1973 Grand National he was 9-1 joint favourite, along with the Australian chaser, Crisp. Crisp, carrying the top weight of 12st, ran away with the race, and at the final fence was 15 lengths ahead of Red Rum in second place. Then, in what is considered one of the most remarkable run-ins in National history, Red Rum, ridden by Brian Fletcher, began to reel in his rapidly tiring rival. Just two strides from the post he passed Crisp to take the first of three National victories. The following year, possibly his best, Red Rum carried top weight – an extra 23lbs – and, like Crisp a year earlier, found himself several lengths clear with the last fence to jump.

His challenger was L’Escargot, and for a moment it seemed that Red Rum would be hunted down just as he had hunted down Crisp. But in a display of the tenacity which made him such a popular favourite, he held on to become the first horse to win successive Nationals since Reynoldstown in the 1930s. Three weeks later he won the Scottish Grand National too. In the 18 months from autumn 1974 to spring 1976 Red Rum ran in 18 chases, and McCain faced a barrage of criticism for racing his star horse too often. Indeed, in the 1975 and 1976 Nationals, Red Rum was unable to see off his principal challenger, finishing second in both years, latterly to Rag Trade, the last of Fred Rimell’s four winners. As the 1976/77 season got under way Red Rum seemed finished, producing a series of lacklustre performances. Then, in the run-up to the National, his form perked up. In the big race he completed his hat-trick of victories after Churchtown Boy stumbled at the second last. Red Rum ran home a 25-length winner.

It was a feat that assured his – and his trainer’s – place in racing history. Not only had Red Rum won the National three times, but he had also done so when Aintree was facing uncertainty in the face of plans for property development at the course. Popular affection for the horse helped serve as a reminder of the enormous popular affection for the National meeting, whose future is now assured. For McCain, it was a legacy quite sufficient to silence any doubters. “In a normal, run-of-the-mill training centre, Red Rum would never have lasted,” he said. “I needed him, but he needed Ginger McCain, and he needed Southport. If I only had one horse, didn’t I make a cracking job of it?” Donald McCain was born on September 21 1930 in Southport. His father, William, was a dispatch manager for the local firm Marshall and Snelgrove; his mother, Sally, looked after Donald and his elder sister, Audrey. Donald, known as Ginger on account of his rusty mop, attended Farnborough Road School in the town. There the boys organised a boxing competition among themselves known as “Cock of the school.” Ginger never won but was “never far off.

I could always look after myself.” (Much later, after Brian Fletcher used the whip on the soft part of Red Rum’s belly, McCain is alleged to said: “If you ever hit my horse there again, Brian, I’ll bury you.”) Ginger moved to Birkdale Secondary Modern and played for the school football team until he left shortly before his 14th birthday. “With the war on, nobody bothered very much about whether you were at school or not.” His father joined the RAF and his mother went to work in an ammunition factory. Ginger was first taken to the National in 1940, when he was nine, by an aunt. His grandfather, John Wright, introduced him to horses. Wright drove a horse-drawn float for a local butchers and when Ginger left school to join him, the pay was a pound a week. After the war he continued the work, supplementing his income with a spot of poaching. Local tradesmen allowed him to ride their horses and jump them at local shows. To practise for these events, Ginger improvised fences by putting planks across the gravestones at Churchtown cemetery and vaulting his mounts over them.

After National Service with the Army, McCain returned to Southport, packing at a wallet factory. He lasted three weeks before a job came up at stables in Cheshire owned by Frank Speakman. But any ambitions of becoming a jockey were ended by McCain’s size – he weighed 12st at 21 – and he soon returned to Southport. Having learned to drive on National Service, McCain decided to become a taxi driver. Among his early fares was Frank Sinatra, in town to sing at a series of concerts in Blackpool. According to McCain they criss-crossed town in search of a hairbrush. At the end of the quest there was no tip for McCain: “I always preferred Bing Crosby anyway.” McCain bought his first horse, Scottish Humour, from Speakman for 25 pounds. The horse had a leg injury and had been “tubed” – meaning that it had to breath through a tube. But McCain had “a toehold in the old game”. His first permit to train arrived on February 3 1953. It was shortly afterwards that he met Beryl Harris; despite the protestations of her parents, they married on Grand National day 1959.

“I knew I had found the right girl for me when I saw Beryl washing down the legs of a horse with a hosepipe,” he said. It was not until 1965 that McCain saddled his first winner, San Lorenzo, a 14 year-old, at a selling chase in Liverpool. The horse had broken down in Ireland when McCain, flat broke, bought him without telling his wife. “If he comes, I go,” Beryl McCain threatened her husband. “You better set off then, because he’s already on the boat.” The same year, also in Ireland, a foal was born to the dam, Mared, and a grey stallion named Quorum. In his early career as a sprinter Red Rum was ridden by, among many others, Lester Piggott. McCain first saw him win the selling race for two-year-olds at Liverpool in 1967, but at the auction that followed he walked away before the young horse came up for sale – he was looking for jumpers. Red Rum passed through the hands of several trainers and by the age of four was intermittently lame. He was five when introduced to jumps. But he had staying power and McCain was convinced the horse could be National contender.

After persuading Le Mare to let him bid up to 7,000 guineas at the Doncaster sales in 1972, he was astounded to find that the bidding opened at only 1,000 guineas. When the price had reached 4,600 guineas, McCain made a dramatic raise – to 6,000 guineas – in an attempt to deflate his rival bidders. “A few hours later, we pulled up outside the car showroom in Southport, dropped the ramp and let Red Rum into his new home.” The discovery of a hairline fracture forced Red Rum into retirement just before the 1978 National, but thereafter he became something of a national celebrity, with a packed diary of engagements. He endorsed products, opened betting shops and had his image cast in bronze; trains were named after him. McCain however, did not go on to such great things. He had moved into selling, rather than driving, cars.

“Horse people think they are clever and pull strokes,” he lamented, “but let me tell you they are babes in arms compared to second-hand-car dealers.” Despite the Red Rum income, McCain was in financial difficulties and, by early 1982, his business was more than £60,000 in debt. Then a friend, Stan Markland, stepped in with a large loan that kept the business afloat and, within five years, the loan was paid off. Not long afterwards, in 1990, McCain moved from Southport to Bankhouse, to a stables set in 192 acres on the Cholmondeley Estate in Cheshire. McCain, who had just seen his “second best ever horse” break his neck in a fall, was looking for a change in luck. He installed an all-weather gallop and invited his children to join him. Soon after the move Red Rum, then in his mid-20s, began to suffer from ill health. A blocked artery was relieved, but in October 1995 he was found unable to stand in his box.

“We had Red Rum for 23 years and he was very special in our lives,” McCain said after the horse had been put down. “The strange thing was, I never rode him until he retired and he became my hack. I honestly think there was a bond between us. I don’t want to sound boastful, but I think he appreciated me more than any other rider who was on him. People say, 'But he was only a horse’. He was, but he was unique.” McCain’s upswing in fortunes began in the late 1990s, with his son Donald working the stables at his side. In the early years of the new century, after almost three decades of his horses falling or being pulled up, McCain was once again a name to reckon with in the National. In 2003, Amberleigh House, a 11-year-old gelding from the Bankhouse yard, showed great promise to finish third. A year later he was a 16-1 shot when he found himself, like Red Rum in 1973, some 20 lengths behind the leaders.

But as they tired or fell, Amberleigh House raced home to record a memorable fourth win for Ginger McCain, who laid to rest his reputation as a “one-horse trainer”. “When we won the fourth National, where in the old days we’d all have been whooping, it was pure satisfaction,” he said afterwards. Bankhouse quickly became a more fashionable destination for owners than Southport had ever been. Soon after Amberleigh House’s win, Ginger and Donald McCain had more than 50 horses in training, with a new stable block planned. Two years later Ginger handed over the full time running of the stables to Donald. But he had no plans to stop giving his opinion: “No doubt I’ll continue to open my mouth too wide. I’ll still be on the gallops every day. I can pick the dog shite up.” He was at Aintree earlier this year to see Ballabriggs, trained by Donald McCain, win the family’s fifth Grand National. After the race, Ginger McCain gleefully told reporters that Donald had “done a cracking job with this horse,” before adding: “If I ever meet his father I am going to congratulate him.

He must be the brains behind it.” Ginger McCain, who once said that he wanted to be buried alongside Red Rum by the winning post at Aintree, is survived by his wife and their two children. 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

Question: Which horse, ridden by Brian Fletcher, won the Scottish Grand National in 1974?
Answer: 'RED RUM'