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Red Rum: Great horses in history

Emma Collings

13 February, 2008

More than 30 years may have elapsed since the first of Red Rum's historic three Grand National victories, but ask the average person in the street to name a racehorse and his is invariably still the first name uttered.

This familiarity owes as much to the race itself as to the horse's own incredible achievements. Love it or loathe it, no fixture in the racing calendar captures the public imagination quite like the National, and, in the mid 1970s, Red Rum's extraordinary record at Aintree, granted him equine superstar status.

The history of the four and a half mile steeplechase is steeped in drama and the gelding duly made his own contribution in his first clash with the big fences. Leading from the first Becher's Brook, Australian challenger Crisp, who had been sent off joint-favourite with "Rummy", opened up what appeared to be an unassailable lead, with the rest of the field trailing by as much as 25 lengths for most of the second circuit.

Even at the elbow after the last fence, the bold front-runner still had the advantage, but was now visibly tiring as the relentless Red Rum closed fast up Aintree's stamina-sapping run-in to just prevail by three-quarters of a length.

Fittingly, Rummy's association with Liverpool began long before his reign as National hero, when, as a two-year-old, he made his debut at Aintree, dead-heating on the flat in a five-furlong selling plate.

In attendance that day was the man whose name would be forever associated with Red Rum in national hunt history books, but who at the time was a permit-holder, subsidising this pursuit by running a used car showroom and part-time taxi business in Southport.

Donald "Ginger" McCain's next sighting of his future charge was at the same course a year later when Rummy, partnered by Lester Piggott, lost by a short-head to Alan's Pet in the Earl of Sefton Handicap Stakes, a mere sideshow to the feature race on the card, the 1968 Grand National.

The 400gns yearling, bred to be a sprinter by Martyn McEnery in Co Kilkenny, was bought and broken in by Champion Hurdle-winning jockey Tim Molony and later switched to the ownership of Lurline Brotherton, whose ambition was to own the winner of the Grand National.

Deterred by Red Rum's escalating vet bills due to the bone disease pedalostitis and mixed fortunes in his races until then, Mrs Brotherton entered him for Doncaster's August Sale of 1972, just eight months before the gelding would realise this dream for his new owner.

Snapped up for 6,000gns on behalf of Noel le Mare, the seven-year-old began his long tenure at McCain's Upper Aughton Road stables that summer, a partnership that would continue for 23 years.

The trainer, like Mrs Brotherton, had long dreamed of winning jump racing's biggest prize at what was his local racecourse, but even McCain could not have imagined the phenomenal run his new arrival would achieve in the ensuing five years.

He recorded back-to-back victories in 1973 — when he broke Golden Miller's course record — and 1974 in what was arguably his best season, also landing the Scottish National and narrowly losing out to Red Candle in the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury.

The following two years, he was second to Ireland's Cheltenham Gold Cup winner L'Escargot and Rag Trade.

Rummy's emotional hat-trick in The Queen's Silver Jubilee year, this time in the hands of jockey Tommy Stack, made him a household name.

No horse since has come close to emulating that feat, made all the more incredible considering his well-documented foot problems. His handler was convinced that his enforced unorthodox training grounds — on the nearby Southport sands in the absence of proper gallops — helped his star overcome the condition that had dogged his early years.

"The ailment was thought by most people in racing to be virtually incurable. What a quirk of fate that of all the places Red Rum could have gone to, he finished up with a trainer whose only gallops were the beach," comments McCain.

Rummy was entered to contest a sixth Grand National in 1978 and worked well in the build-up, but, with the requisite drama that routinely surrounds the race, was declared a non-runner the night before due to lameness. He was subsequently found to have a hairline fracture and never raced again.

His withdrawal dominated news bulletins as the lead item, testament to his enormous public following. Though his injury ruled him out of competing, the Liverpool crowds were not to be disappointed. The chaser still made an appearance leading the pre-race parade — an engagement that became an annual event.

In retirement, Rummy was as popular as he had been throughout his racing career and seemingly relished the attention from his fans.

"Everybody thought the world of him, and the little devil knew it," says McCain affectionately of his star.

He made numerous public appearances, most memorably walking calmly on stage for the BBC Sports Review of the Year and pricking his ears when he heard the voice of Tommy Stack coming from the big screen.

Appropriately, after his death in 1995 at the age of 30, Red Rum was laid to rest in the shadow of the winning post at Aintree, the course he had made his own.

First published in Horse & Hound in 2003

British Horseracing Board

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