ESB

Looking back through the year, there is no doubt that ESB will go down as being one of the luckiest Grand National winners ever. There will be many people who have seen the finish to this race but might not even have known they were watching ESB pick up an unlikely win.

The horse would take the 1956 Grand National, one of four attempts he had at the race. A fall in 1955 would start his time in the race. He would finish 8^th in 1957 and 6^th in 1958 after winning, carrying close to a stone more in weight, which ultimately took its toll.

Devon Loch grabbed the headlines over ESB and was also the horse to gift ESB the victory. He would be clear and on his way to a huge success when something completely bizarre would happen. Without reason, Devon Loch would jump into the air just 40 yards from home, belly flopping onto the floor and taking plenty of time to get back up.

ESB was able to close the gap and go past, picking up a win that would not have happened had it not been for the bizarre jump from Devon Loch, which turned the race upside down.

The finish to this race is one of the most watched Grand National moments, a completely unreal few seconds in racing, something that came out of the blue and caused huge drama on the biggest stage of them all.

There is a lot of talk about ESB and how lucky he was to win a Grand National. However, when you take a look at the stats, it doesn’t all point to that. Yes, he was very fortunate with the win, but on the clock, he was just one second outside of the Grand National record time.

Devon Loch would have smashed the record had he continued running to the line, but the performance of ESB should not be underestimated, because of what happened in front of him.

Fred Rimell, winning trainer of ESB, got his hands on this horse for this race and would begin a fantastic Grand National career by winning this. Rimell would end a four-time Grand National winner. This was the first of those.

ESB’s Big Race Wins

ESB headed into the Grand National of 1956 in really good form, winning races at Birmingham, Haydock and Manchester en route to his visit of Aintree.

Those were pretty minor races, though in the main, and after winning the Grand National, that’s when we saw him step up in class and take on the bigger challenges.

He would win the Great Yorkshire Chase in 1956 and 1957 completing a double in a race that has always been seen as a real quality one. He would also add a Lancashire Chase to his name, taking that race in 1958 as he was coming towards the end of his career.

Alongside this, he would place in plenty of other big races to further add to his impressive career

Full Results