1843 Grand National: Results, Runners & Fallers

A total of 16 runners would go to post for the 1843 Grand National, and of those, seven would be able to complete the course. Leading them home was Vanguard, a horse that was having his first run in the Grand National, but that lack of experience didn’t stop him from winning.

Returning with an SP of 12/1, he was amongst the lively outsiders in the market but not overly fancied for success. He would come home with a winning distance of three lengths, ahead of second-placed Nimrod.

It certainly wasn’t straightforward for the winner, who was actually carried out of the race at one point. When going to fence 15, Peter Simple refused to jump and avoided the fence. In doing so, he took two runners out with him, one of which was Vanguard.

Despite that, losing plenty of lengths during the incident, Vanguard was able to cut through the field and still gain the upper hand.

Two years later, in 1845, Vanguard would be back for more in the Grand National. However, he would be pulled up and taken out of the race. He was ridden and trained by Tom Olliver on that occasion, the man who rode him to success in 1843.

This was Olliver’s second win in the Grand National, and it was the second in two years because he won the race a year earlier, which was on Gaylad.

He would go on to have further success as a jockey in the race, winning the 1853 race on Peter Simple, not to be confused with the Peter Simple that carried Vanguard out of the race here, a different horse with the same name. Olliver would also train Peter Simple to victory as well as riding him.

The winning trainer of Vanguard was Lord Chesterfield, who was his one and only Grand National runner here, so he had a perfect Grand National record in his training career. He would not train Vanguard when he returned two years later to run in the race again.

Finally, this was also a monumental moment for the race makeup itself and something that is still in place to this day. This was the first time that the Grand National had been run as a handicap, meaning that horses carried an allotted amount of weight which was based on their ability, to level the playing field for all runners.

In the past, the Grand National had been run at level weights. This was just the eighth overall running of the race and the fifth official running of it, so it was a very early change and something that has stuck with the race, making it a better spectacle for us all to watch.

Results

Non Finishers