Of course, the most successful horse in the recent history of the Grand National was Tiger Roll, who won back-to-back renewals of the world famous steeplechase in 2018 and 2019, but was denied the chance of a third win by the coronavirus pandemic, in 2020, and by his owner, Michael O’Leary, in 2021 and 2022. Readers of a certain age may also remember – and everyone will almost certainly have heard of – Red Rum, who won the Grand National an unprecedented three times, in 1973, 1974, and 1977.
However, the names of the other multiple winners of the Grand National – of which there are six, seven or eight, depending on the ground rules applied – are probably less familiar. To clarify, The Duke won the first two runnings of the Grand Liverpool Steeplechase, in 1836 and 1837, but the races were subsequently stricken, some historians say erroneously, from the ‘official’ Grand National records. Likewise, Poethyln won the so-called ‘War National’, staged at Gatwick in 1918, and won again when the Grand National returned to Aintree in 1919.
As far as ‘official’ renewals of the Grand National at Aintree are concerned, the first dual winner was Abd-El-Kader, in 1850 and 1851. He was followed by Peter Simple, who had won the Grand National for the first time in 1849, but returned four years later, as a doughty 15-year-old, to do so again. Thereafter, The Lamb (1868 and 1871) and The Colonel (1869 and 1870) won four renewals between them in as many years and, towards the end of the century, the indefatigable Manifesto – who ran in the Grand National a record eight times between 1895 and 1904 – prevailed twice, in 1897 and 1899. Before Red Rum, the last horse to win the Grand National more than once was Reynoldstown, who recorded back-to-back victories in 1935 and 1936; the legendary Golden Miller failed to complete the course on both occasions.