The short answer is yes, it is. In fact, Frederick Thomas ‘Fred’ Winter won the Grand National twice as a trainer and twice as a jockey. Born in Andover, Hampshire, on September 20, 1926, Winter was a force majeure in British National Hunt throughout the fifties, sixties, seventies and eighties. In August 1987, he suffered a second stroke, which left him paralysed down one side and unable to speak, therby effectively ending his training career.
Nevertheless, aside from his Grand National victories, Winter also won the Cheltenham Gold Cup three times, twice as a jockey, with Saffron Tartan (1961) and Mandarin (1962), and once as a trainer, with Midnight Court (1978). He also won the Champion Hurdle seven times, three times as a jockey, with Clair Soleil (1955), Fare Time (1959) and Eboneezer (1961), and four times as a trainer, with Bula (1971 and 1972), Lanzarote (1974) and Celtic Shot (1988). He remains the only person to win all three prestigious races in both capacities.
At the time of his retirement from the saddle, in April 1964, Winter had ridden a then-record 923 winners and won the National Hunt Jockeys’ Championship four times, in 1952/53 and three seasons running between 1955/56 and 1957/58. Indeed, he was reigning Champion Jockey when he won the Grand National for the first time on Sundew in 1957 and followed up with Kilmore in 1962.
As a trainer, Winter occupied the historic Upland Stables in Upper Lambourn, Berkshire for the whole of his career. Between 1970/71 and 1984/85, he won the National Hunt Trainers’ Championship at total of eight times, but was fortunate enough to have won the Grand National at the first, and second, time of asking. In 1965, he saddled American import Jay Trump to a narrow victory in the celebrated steeplechase and, in 1966, repeated the dose with Anglo, who beat the luckless Freddie – who had also finished second the previous year – by 20 lengths.