Fury Road Grand National Wins
Fury Road has never won the Grand National.
They have never finished the race.
The Gordon Elliott-trained Fury Road hit the ground running as a stayer in his younger days and has been to the very top of racing, winning at Grade One level. Longer trips certainly gave this horse an even better platform to showcase his ability, even in his first trip to the Cheltenham Festival, he ran over three miles as a hurdler.
Foaled in 2014, the horse was bought by the Gigginstown Stud and sent to Gordon Elliott at the start of is career. Coming from the Irish point-to-point scene, he had chasing experience from those first days, and when you combine that with the fact he was running over longer distances in his early years, it is no surprise to see he would eventually find his way to the Grand National, which he did in 2023.
Full Results
| Year | Result | Prize Money | Handicap | Jockey | Trainer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Fence 2 - Fell | - | 11-6 | Jonjo O’Neill Jr | Gordon Elliott |
Fury Road’s Early Years
Fury Road would make his debut in April 2018, running fourth in a point-to-point race behind Monkfish. That was followed up with a five-length win a month later, the final time we would see him in a point-to-point race after two very good runs.
Under rules, he would go to national hunt flat races first, finishing fifth on debut before winning his second flat race, and then finishing third to round off his first rules season. That may look a little disappointing, but this horse was always going to be better when jumping and running over longer trips.
He would instantly show that the following season, winning his first three hurdle starts. The first of those was an 18 length win at Down Royal in a maiden hurdle before he stepped up in quality, winning a Grade Three by ten lengths and a Grade Two by one length. He would then take in Grade One races at Leopardstown and Cheltenham, finishing fourth in Ireland and third when he went across to the UK, a thrilling race where he was once again behind Monkfish.
The horse would stick to hurdling the following season when perhaps chasing was expected. He won a Grade Two race this season but was pulled up in the Cheltenham Stayers Hurdle and the Punchestown Stayers Hurdle to really end the season on a quiet note.
Finally, a year later than expected, the horse would go novice chasing and seemingly get back on track in a year which included his first Grade One win.
Fury Road’s Big Race Wins
The biggest win of Fury Road’s career to date was that Grade One win that he took over fences. It came in December 2021 when he won the Nevills Hotels Novice Chase at Leopardstown, the big novice chase ran in Ireland over the Christmas period.
Not only did Fury Road win the race, but he came away from the field to land it in good style, winning by eight lengths.
The horse has recorded further wins at Grade Two and Grade Three level, winning at Grade Two level over both hurdles and fences in his career. While this shows his ability to move between the two codes of racing, one thing that all of those wins had in common was that they came over longer trips.
The horse had quickly shown his ability to run over trips around three miles, and sometimes further, while placed efforts in good races have also shown the same. Unfortunately, when the horse did make his Grand National debut in 2023, we never got to see that staying power, as he unseated his rider after being hampered as just the second fence when another horse fell in front of him.