1956 Grand National: Results, Runners & Fallers

The 1956 Grand National will be forever known as the race that gave us one of the luckiest winners we have ever seen in the race. Taking the prize was ESB, a winner by ten lengths at odds of 100/7.

But there’s a whole lot more to the story than meets the eye, and although you may not have known what you were watching at the time if you’ve seen any old Grand National footage recently, this year was likely to have been part of that footage.

Winning trainer was Fred Rimell, a man who would go on to become a Grand National legend in the future. The jockey was David Dick, a jockey who had many Grand National rides during his career, but this was his only successful one.

This was the second of four runs in the race for ESB, and his only success. He began by falling a year earlier and would go on to finish 8^th and 6^th in the race in the following two years. Despite that, the horse isn’t really spoken about too much, overshadowed by the story of Devon Loch in the year he did win the contest.

But that shouldn’t take anything away from ESB, a tough and very strong horse who was good enough to win the Grand National, even if he did need a little bit of luck along the way.

The Devon Loch Drama

Devon Loch is a horse that will go down as one of the most talked about Grand National horses, who never actually won the race. The horse should have won in 1956, but drama on the run in would end his chances in strange style.

The horse, and story of this unusual event, is made even more interesting when you find out who his owner is. He was owned by Queen Elizabeth I, also known as the Queen Mother, a member of the Royal family and a big lover of horse racing.

She was just a few yards away from giving us a royal winner of the Grand National in 1956 but was cruelly denied.

With three jumps to go, Devon Loch took the lead in the Grand National and was travelling very well. Over the last fence, he jumped half a length clear of ESB and then began to power away from him on the run-in, showing he had far greater left in the tank.

The unthinkable happened right in front of the royal box, where his owner was watching from, five lengths ahead of the second and 40 yards from the finish. Devon Loch would suddenly jump into the air for no reason, and he would land on his stomach, hitting the floor.

Jockey Dick Francis tried to get the horse going again, but he wouldn’t and was unable to finish the race. Remarkably, after the contest, the Queen Mother was interviewed where she simply described the event by saying “that’s racing” and brushed off the disappointment.

To this day, there’s still no one explanation as to why Devon Loch jumped, but there are many theories. The most likely comes from jockey Dick Francis, who claims that the starting of loud cheers from the crowd at the thought of a royal winner would have been very distracting for his mount, causing him to do something unexpected.

Other possibles, are that there was a shadow on the course, from the water jump, which isn’t jumped in the closing stages. This could have made Devon Loch unsure as to whether he should or shouldn’t be jumping at this, causing him to half-jump and eventually fall to the floor in a confused manner.

Cramp is also a possibility, and this would also explain the strange nature of the fall and collapse of the horse, but it was never confirmed when the horse was checked over afterwards. There was talk after the race that the horse had potentially suffered a heart attack, although his recovery afterwards was good, and he would live for another six years after the event, meaning that was highly unlikely.

The Start of Fred Rimell’s History Making

Prior to the race in 1956, where Rimell had a huge slice of luck, his Grand National record was very poor.

He had six runners, and they had all fallen, so he was yet to actually have a runner complete the course by the time ESB won the race.

But these small beginnings would eventually lead to a Grand National record that would turn Rimell into a legend of the race.

He would go on to win the race four times, the first in 1956, the last in 1976, cementing his name as one of the best trainers in this race, knowing what it took to win the contest, and specifically training horses to try and win it.

Results

Non Finishers