Compared with the other ‘named’ fences on the Grand National Course – that is, Becher’s Brook, The Canal Turn, Valentine’s Brook and The Chair – the fence now known as ‘Foinavon’ is really nothing to write home about. Indeed, at 4’6” high and 3’ wide, it is one of the smallest obstacles on the course. Of course, the positioning of the fence, immediately following the precipitous drop on the landing side of Becher’s Brook, can set a trap for the unwary, but the obstacle itself is otherwise unremarkable.
Neverthless, the apparently innocuous fence, which is jumped twice during the Grand National – as the seventh fence on the first circuit and the twenty-third on the second – was the site of one of the most memorable series of events in the history of the great race. To recap, briefly, in 1967, the riderless Popham Down, who had unseated rider at the first fence, refused at, and ran down the twenty-third fence, causing a mêlée. The ensuing carnage put paid to the chances of all bar one of the remaining runners, leading commentator Michael O’Hehir to exclaim, ‘And now, with all this mayhem, Foinavon has gone off on his own!’
Trained by John Kempton and ridden by Grand National debutante John Buckingham, Foinavon was a bona fide 100/1 outsider, but, gifted a huge lead, was always going to take some catching. Several of his rivals set off in hot pursuit, but Foinavon made the best of way home and crossed the line 15 lengths ahead of his nearest pursuer, favourite Honey End, ridden by Josh Gifford. In the aftermath of the debacle, O’Hehir suggested that the seventh fence could one day be named ‘Foinavon’ in honour of the unlikliest of winners and, in 1984, the Aintree Racecourse Executive officially did just that.