The 1973 Grand National will go down as being one of the most memorable in history. The winner, Red Rum, was having his first Grand National win, little did we know at the time, he would go on to become a Grand National and horse racing legend.
The same can also be said for his trainer, Ginger McCain, who too would be at the start of something very special when it came to this race.
When stepping foot onto the track this year, Red Rum was having the first of five Grand National runs, three of those would result in wins, while he would finish second in the other two. Despite that, he was sent off as the 9/1 joint-favourite on the day and, in dramatic style, landed the odds for those that followed.
The race was dominated by those at the head of the betting. Second placed Crisp was the other 9/1 joint favourite on the day, while third-place L’Escargot was sent off at 11/1 and directly behind those two as the third runner in the betting.
Thirty-eight runners went to post in the race, with 17 able to complete the course on good to firm ground at Aintree.
Talking of legends of the Grand National at the start of their career, and this was also the case for Ginger McCain, Red Rum’s trainer. He would go on to have four wins in the race as a trainer, a fantastic record, and this was the very first of them.
Not only that, but this was the first time he had runners in the race, saddling Red Rum to win it, plus Glenkiln, who would fall.
The winning jockey was Brian Fletcher, a man who had tasted Grand National success before. He won the 1968 race on Red Alligator and would then win the race this year and the following year on Red Rum, to give him a total of three career Grand National wins.
Red Rum Claims First Grand National with Dramatic Win
Over four miles around Aintree racecourse, and despite the long distance of this race, we were still given a dramatic ending to the contest. Red Rum looked beaten at the final fence. He looked booked for second place, but from out of nowhere, he found another gear to land a dramatic win.
Jumping the last fence, he was 15 lengths behind Crisp, with the Australian horse looking all over the winner. But as the pair went up the run in, the additional weight on Crisp, which was 23lb in total over Red Rum, began to show.
With every stride, Red Rum was making up distance, and in the end, in the final few strides, he would get past and go into the lead. He would record a winning distance of three-quarters of a length and give us all a dramatic end to a big race.
The pair would be miles clear of the rest. Third place was L’Escargot who was 25 lengths behind the front two.
The standard of the race was also very high, and that was seen by the fact that the winning time recorded by Red Rum was a record-breaking time. He would win the race in nine minutes and 1.9 seconds.
This smashed a record that was initially set in 1935, so it had been in place for some time. On top of that, the record set by Red Rum would be in place until 1990, standing the test of time itself, showing the quality of this race was quite a bit higher than other years both before and after.
The finish to the 1973 Grand National is one that everyone will remember if they’ve seen it. Over the years, it’s also been voted as one of the greatest sporting and horse racing moments, bringing drama to the biggest racing stage of them all.
When Red Rum won the race, he instantly made a name for himself, both by the manner of his win and the fact he broke the track record. However, in years to come, he would go further and cement himself into the record books as a Grand National legend, perhaps the greatest Grand National horse of all time.
Results
Non Finishers
What punters, trainers and jockeys wouldn’t have known before the running of the 127th was that history about to be made, by none other than Red Rum. 1973 is famous for being the nationals introduction to the greatest horses of all time, Red Rum.
A Battle Between Crisp And Red Rum
Crisp, an Australian horse, having won all he could on the other side of the globe, was pitched as joint favourite with England’s Red Rum. For three quarters of the race, anyone would have thought that Crisp would take the trophy.