Voluptuary

Many of the Grand National winners during the late 1800s were not very famous horses, and didn’t have much about them to make them stand out. But that’s not the case for Voluptuary, who would have something a little different about him.

He would win the Grand National in 1884, in what would be the first of four attempts at the race by him. It would also be the only time he actually completed the course, and for reasons unknown, there was a big gap between his win and the other attempts.

After winning in 1884, he wouldn’t be seen in the race again until 1889, 1890 and 1891. In the first of those two years, he would fall, while in his last attempt at the race, he would be pulled up by his jockey, so it wasn’t great after winning the race. More weight didn’t help, but there’s also got to be questions about whether the horse stayed the trip.

In terms of his win, though, this would come by a distance of four lengths, coming clear in the closing stages to bag the win.

Sent off at 10/1, there was definitely some interest in him from a betting point of view, even though he wasn’t sent off as favourite. However, that could have something to do with the unique past this horse had.

The horse holds the place of being the first Grand National winner to have previously run on the flat. This is not something we see too often, of course, given the length of the Grand National, and not only did Voluptuary run on the flat, but he did so at a high level.

Bred by Queen Victoria, he would run in many of the best flat races in the calendar, including the Epsom Derby, of course, perhaps the biggest flat race of them all. While he didn’t have success in that, he was clearly good enough to run in the race, and that shows the standard he set.

After a flat campaign, the horse would then move to national hunt racing under William Wilson, and that would eventually lead him to run in the Grand National.

A one-time race winner, who failed to complete in any of the other races he ran in, but perhaps the reason to know this runner is because he was a Derby runner turned Grand National winner, and it’s not too often you hear anyone saying that.

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