Bogskar

Horse racing, like everything else, would come to an end in 1940, with the start of the Second World War dominating the country and everything happening inside.

In the final race before an enforced five-year break, Bogskar would claim victory, and while other than being the last for some time, this wasn’t a memorable Grand National, though, of course, Bogskar could be the answer to a quiz question because of that.

Unfortunately, the suspension of racing would really hinder Bogskar, and we’ve no idea whether or not he could have been a really special horse. After winning in 1940, his career was on hold, like with all the others, he won the Grand National as a seven year old, which is very young, and was only just entering his prime.

Remarkably, the horse would stay in training and would actually run in the Grand National twice when the race restarted, falling in both the 1946 and 1047 renewals. But of course, they came five and six years after his win, and it’s impossible to say what kind of horse he would have been and whether he would have been able to win again during the period of no racing.

The same has to be said about the jockey of Bogskar, Mervyn Jones. This was his one and only ride in the Grand National, so he ended with a 100% winning record in the race. However, when serving in the war in 1942, his plane was shot down, and he was killed, so we never saw him on the racetrack again.

Jones was actually a last minute replacement for the ride. He wasn’t the man who was supposed to ride. He got his chance, took it with both hands and ultimately wrote his name into the history books before his death.

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