Why Not

An unbelievably durable warrior from the time, Why Not is a horse that doesn’t deserve credit for just winning the Grand National in 1894, but for his overall record in the race.

He would capture the hearts of racing fans for his commitment to Aintree, running a total of seven times in the Grand National, a feat on its own, but when you add in his record to that, he goes up another level.

This favourite with the Aintree crowd would bag his one and only success in the race in 1894. Coming in with the experience of running four times in the race before, he knew what it took and would finally deliver a win, ridden to success by Arthur Nightingall.

Conditions were testing, but that didn’t stop him from claiming gold, staying on strongly to get a much-deserved win on the board. He was one of nine that would finish and would go on to win the race by one and a half lengths.

13 at the time, he was in the latter stages of his career, but this wasn’t the last we saw of him in the race.

Before winning, he ran four times, the first of those coming in 1889, where he would finish second and hit the big stage with a bang. Fifth in 1890, another good run, but in 1891, he would fall in the race. In 1893, the year before his win, he put up another good effort to finish third and was looking like a horse capable of a good run, but not a winning one.

After winning at 13, you would have forgiven connections for calling it a day, but no, we saw him another two times in the race. Trying to defend his crown in 1895, he would finish fifth and then in his final Grand National appearance a year later, he would finish in the same position again.

One-time winners of this contest usually don’t go down as the most loved with fans, but Why Not is different. Seven runs, six of them finishing fifth or better, and of course, one win, a remarkable show of both quality and sheer endurance to keep coming back, year after year.

When you look back through history, there are plenty of Grand National runners that are probably not well known now, but deserve to be, and Why Not is definitely one of those.

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