Old Joe

Old Joe would run in the Grand National a total of three times during his career, and after winning the first of those in 1886, sadly, it would only get worse from there.

Heading to Aintree for the first time without experience of the race made life tough, which showed in the betting, as he was sent off with an SP of 25/1. But he defied that, and came out on top in the contest, recording a win by six lengths.

A year later, the horse would be back for more, but when trying to defend his crown, he couldn’t even complete the course and was pulled up. The horse would be back 12 months later in 1888.  This time, he was able to complete the course, but he could only finish 11^th.

The horse was trained by George Mulcaster in all three of his Grand National attempts, but he would have a different jockey on board for each of those runs. Tom Skelton was the lucky man to bag the winning ride in 1886.

Those two attempts to win the race again were much tougher, with more than a stone extra on his back compared to when he won it.

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