Shaun Spadah Grand National Wins
- 1921 - ridden by Dick Rees trained by G Poole
A regular in the Grand National during his career, Shaun Spadah would run in the race a total of six times. He would complete five out of the six times, an excellent record when you consider the difficulty of the race during this era, and let’s not overestimate the ability just to run six times, which is an achievement in itself.
To further add to this record, he would bag a win in the race, landing the 1921 Grand National in terrible conditions, some of the worst we’ve seen for the race over the years.
The one time he didn’t finish was actually the year he went to the race as defending champion, and to make it worse, he would fall at the very first fence.
Going back to 1921, and this was a real war of attrition; bad weather before the meeting started left the ground in a pretty desperate state. Then, during racing, things got even worse, further impacting the ground and also making visibility for those taking part a real problem.
Thirty-five horses would take part, and the other 34 would all fall at some point in the race, either taking them out or meaning they would have to remount and be a long way behind. Shaun Spadah, as we’ve already said, had proven himself to be a good jumper, and he was the only one who was able to stay on his feet.
Just four horses crossed the line at the end of the race, the other three remounted, and the winning time of 10 minutes and 26 seconds tells you all you need to know about the tough conditions the participants faced.
In 1923, Shaun Spadah almost landed another Grand National, finishing in second place behind Sergeant Murphy, further adding to his strong record in the race. At the time of his win, he was 11, at the time of his second-place finish, he was 13, this is a horse that kept going for a long time at the top of his game, he was ultra-consistent.
He was trained by George Poole in four of his six Grand National attempts, the final four, including his win and second placed efforts. Fred Rees would take the reins for most of his runs in the Grand National, including his success, proving to be a good rider and one that could tough it out, just like the horse.