Neville Crump

Neville Franklin Crump was one of the most successful trainers of staying steeplechasers in the period immediately following World War II. He was National Hunt Champion Trainer twice, in 1951/52 and 1956/57, and, with the notable exception of the Cheltenham Gold Cup, won all the major staying chases in the British National Hunt calendar. When he retired from the training ranks in 1989, he had won the Grand National three times, the Scottish Grand National five times, the Welsh National twice and the Whitbread Gold Cup – now, of course, the Bet365 Gold Cup – three times.

Crump saddled his first National winner, Sheila’s Cottage, in 1948, a little over a decade after first taking out a training licence. Owned by John Procter, Sheila’s Cottage apparently had her own ideas about the game but, on a balmy summer day, was on her best behaviour at Aintree, tackling long-time leader First Of The Dandies on the famously long run-in to win by a length at odds of 50/1. In so doing, she became the first mare to win the National for 46 years.

Crump didn’t have to wait long for his second National victory. In 1952, he saddled Teal, ridden, like Sheila’s Cottage, by Arthur Thompson and Wot No Sun, ridden by Dave Dick. On a wet, foggy day, which made visibility poor, and after a false start, Teal and Legal Joy, ridden by Michael Scudamore, emerged from the gloom stride-for-stride at the final fence. However, it was Teal who asserted on the run-in, eventually winning by 5 lengths, with topically-named stablemate Wot No Sun a distant, and rather lucky, third after the fall of Royal Tan at the final fence.

The 1960 Grand National was the first to be televised by the BBC and the last before the fences were modified, just in time for Neville Crump to saddle his third, and final, winner, Merryman II. Owned by Winifred Wallace and ridden by Gerry Scott, Merryman started 13/2 favourite and duly obliged, galloping all over his rivals from some way out and winning by 15 lengths. Scott later became a Jockey Club starter and has the distinction of being the only man to start the National, as well as riding the winner.

Tommy Carberry

Tommy Carberry had the rare distinction of winning the Grand National as a jockey and as a trainer. In fact, he remains one of a select band of just five men – the others being, in chronological order, Algernon Anthony, Aubrey Hastings, Fulke Walwyn and Fred Winter – to have done so since the turn of the twentieth century.

In 1975, Carberry rode L’Escargot – trained by his father-in-law, Dan Moore – on whom he’d finished third in 1973 and second in 1974, to a 15-length win over Red Rum in the Grand National. In so doing, he not only denied the greatest National horse of all time a third consecutive win in the iconic steeplechase, but also became the first jockey to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup, the Grand National and the Irish Grand National in the same season.

Following his retirement as a jockey in 1982, Carberry embarked on a training career and, in 1999, had the satisfaction of saddling Bobbyjo, ridden by his Paul, to win the Grand National again. Despite being 14lb out of the handicap proper, Bobbyjo drew clear on the long run-in to beat Blue Charm by 10 lengths and become the first Irish-trained winner since L’Escargot 24 years earlier.

Following his death, at the age of 75, in 2017, Co. Meath trainer Noel Meade – to whom Paul Carberry was stable jockey during his career – paid tribute to Carberry Snr.. He said, “He was a legend, and a hero of mine from when I was a kid…He was a genius in the saddle, and Paul was very like him.”

Bindaree

Notwithstanding his victory in the 2002 Grand National – which, of course, was a fabulous achievement in its own right – Bindaree is the horse credited with resurrecting the career of trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies. Bindaree was his second National winner, after Earth Summit in 1998, but the farmer-turned-trainer had claimed that he never really wanted to be a racehorse trainer and already told Raymond Mould, owner of Bindaree, that he was giving up at the end of the season. Later reflecting on his decision to carry on training, Twiston-Davies said, “”If we’d been second in the National I’d have sold all this [Grange Hill Farm in Naunton, Gloucestershire] and gone away.”

Having taken the lead at Becher’s Brook on the second circuit, Bindaree was carried wide by a loose horse two fences later, at the Canal Turn, and headed at the final fence by What’s Up Boys. However, with a 3-length deficit to make up, Bindaree was switched to the inside by jockey Jim Culloty at the “Elbow”, halfway up the run-in, and produced a powerful finishing effort to overhaul the leader in the final 75 yards and win by 1¾ lengths.

With stable jockey Carl Llewellyn electing to ride better-fancied stable companion Beau, with whom he parted company at the fourteenth fence, Bindaree was due to be ridden by Jamie Goldstein. However, Goldstein had broken his leg in a fall at Ludlow the previous week, allowing Culloty to become the first jockey since John Burke, in 1976, to complete the Cheltenham Gold Cup – Grand National double in the same season.