2001 Grand National - The Race

The Race

The heavy conditions contributed greatly to the horses that fell during the race; eight had already fallen by the third fence. One of the horses that fell in the opening stages, Paddy's Return, carried on as a loose horse and caused pandemonium at the Canal Turn, where he brought down several nearby runners. Nine horses were lost at the Turn overall, including Moral Support, one of the favourites, and future winner Amberleigh House. No Retreat, who was one of the rank outsiders, was also carried out at the Turn but managed to retake the fence and continued over a fence behind the rest of the remaining runners.

Only 13 horses remained after the Turn, going onto the racecourse proper for the first time. At the 13th, Noble Lord fell, leaving only 12 to tackle The Chair, the large standside jump. This year it claimed three horses including joint-favourite Edmond, each-way shot Supreme Charm and largely unfancied Moondigua. Listen Timmy made a major mistake, recovered, but was pulled up immediately after the fence. No Retreat, who was completely tailed off at the time was eventually pulled up by jockey Jason Maguire before the start of the second circuit. As the field left for the second circuit, only seven horses remained: Red Marauder, Papillon, Beau, Blowing Wind, Brave Highlander, Unsinkable Boxer, and Smarty, with Lance Armstrong, who remounted, around half a mile behind.

Approaching the 19th, a couple of loose horses veered across the ditch, similar to what had happened earlier at the Canal Turn, and hampered Papillon, Blowing Wind and Brave Highlander, resulting in their refusals. Unsinkable Boxer also refused at the big ditch. This left three. The leader of the trio and top weight, Beau, unseated jockey Llewellyn at the 20th fence after his reigns broke. Two fences back, Tony McCoy remounted Blowing Wind and Ruby Walsh remounted Papillon. McCoy later said, "I looked up at the big screen and saw there were only two horses still racing. I shouted to Ruby, 'Come on, let's get back up'". Blowing Wind and Papillon both continued the course to take third and fourth place respectively.

Going into the last few fences Smarty had a lead over Red Marauder. However by the second-last, Guest on Red Marauder had drawn level with Smarty, and ultimately won by a distance. A mud-covered Guest celebrated crossing the finish line in the slowest Grand National winning time for over 100 years. It was the first time since Ben Nevis won in 1980 that just four horses finished the race, and the first time since 1967 that there were only two unhampered finishers when the largely unnoticed Packed Home successfully negotiated the infamous 23rd fence pile up behind Foinavon to complete unhindered.