The 2011 Grand National (officially known as the

John Smith's John Smith's Brewery in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, England, produces beers including John Smith's, the highest selling bitter in the United Kingdom since the mid-1990s. The majority of John Smith's sales are of the nitrogenated Extra Smooth ...

Grand National for sponsorship reasons) was the 164th renewal of the

Grand National The Grand National is a National Hunt horse race held annually at Aintree Racecourse in Aintree, Merseyside, England. First run in 1839, it ...

horse race that took place at

Aintree Aintree is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England. Historically in Lancashire, it lies between Walton and Maghull on the A59 road, northeast of Liverpool city centre. In 2011 the parish had a p ...

near

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, England. The showpiece

steeplechase SteepleChase Records is a jazz record company and label based in Copenhagen, Denmark. SteepleChase was founded in 1972 by Nils Winther, who was a student at Copenhagen University at the time. He began recording concerts at Jazzhus Montmartre, ...

began at 4:15 pm BST on 9 April 2011, the final day of the three-day annual meeting. The maximum permitted field of forty runners competed for prize money totalling a record £950,000, making it the highest valued National Hunt race in the United Kingdom. Nineteen of the forty participants completed the 4½-mile course; of the 21 who did not, two suffered fatal falls on the first circuit, reigniting debates over the safety of the event, ultimately leading to changes in the following year's race. Irish horse Ballabriggs won the race, securing the first-place prize money of £535,135 and a first Grand National win for trainer Donald McCain, Jr., the son of four-time winning trainer

Ginger McCain Donald "Ginger" McCain (21 September 1930 – 19 September 2011) was an English horse trainer who led the champion steeplechaser Red Rum to three Grand National victories in the 1970s. A former national serviceman in the Royal Air Force as a ...

. Owned by

Trevor Hemmings Trevor James Hemmings (11 June 1935 – 11 October 2021) was a British billionaire businessman. Early life Hemmings was born in Woolwich, London, on 11 June 1935, the son of a Royal Ordnance worker. During the Second World War, part of the Ro ...

, Ballabriggs was ridden by Irish jockey

Jason Maguire Jason Maguire (born 13 April 1980) is a former horse racing jockey. Early life and career Maguire is the nephew of another former jockey Adrian Maguire. He won the 2011 Grand National The 2011 Grand National (officially known as the John ...

and was sent off at odds of 14/1. The pairing completed the race in 9 minutes 1.2 seconds, the second-fastest time in Grand National history.

Race card

On 2 February 2011 Aintree released the names of 102 horses submitted to enter, including 34 Irish-trained and three French-trained horses. Ten were trained by Paul Nicholls, including a leading contender in Niche Market; nine were handled by Irish trainer

Willie Mullins William Peter Mullins (born 15 September 1956) is an Irish racehorse horse trainer, trainer and former jockey. He is a nineteen-time List of Irish National Hunt races, Irish National Hunt Champion trainer. Mullins is the most successful traine ...

, and three by Jonjo O'Neill, the trainer of last year's winner. Ballabriggs, another leading contender, was trained by Donald McCain, Jr., the son of

who trained

Red Rum Red Rum (3 May 1965 – 18 October 1995) was an Irish champion Thoroughbred steeplechaser. He achieved an unmatched historic treble when he won the Grand National in 1973, 1974 and 1977, and also came second in the two intervening years, 1 ...

to three National victories in the 1970s and returned with another winner, Amberleigh House, in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

. 20 contenders were withdrawn in the first scratchings. After a second scratchings deadline on 24 March 74 horses remained on the list of entrants, with the top weight handicap of 11 st 10 lb allocated to last year's winner

Don't Push It Don't Push It (foaled 6 June 2000) is a retired British thoroughbred racehorse who won the Grand National in 2010. He was trained by Jonjo O'Neill at Jackdaws Castle yard near Cheltenham and ran in the green and yellow silks of owner J. P. Mc ...

. The official odds on 24 March placed Mullins-trained The Midnight Club at 10/1 favourite. Backstage and Oscar Time were given joint-second favourite odds of 12/1. At the five-day deadline on 4 April, nine further withdrawals since the second scratchings left a total of 65 contenders still in the running to compete. Nina Carberry, the sister of

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

winner

Paul Carberry Paul Carberry is a retired Irish National Hunt jockey. Background He was born on 9 February 1974.

, became the first female jockey to take a third ride in the Grand National. Four amateur jockeys lined up to compete. Official odds on favourite The Midnight Club were cut to 8/1, while What A Friend replaced Oscar Time as a joint-second favourite with Backstage on odds of 11/1. On 7 April, Aintree declared the final confirmed list of 40 runners and four reserves as follows. The reserves would replace any withdrawals prior to 9 am on 8 April. None of the reserves, however, were required. *

Barry Geraghty Barry Geraghty (born 16 September 1979) is a retired Irish jockey. He is the second most successful jockey of all time at the Cheltenham Festival. Geraghty rode his first winner in January 1997 and three years later he became the Irish Champ ...

rode Or Noir de Somoza after his original jockey,

Tom Scudamore Tom Scudamore (born 22 May 1982) is a retired third-generation British flat and steeplechase jockey. He is the son of eight-time champion jockey Peter Scudamore; his grandfather Michael won the Grand National on Oxo in 1959.Ballabriggs led for much of the race, and the gelding eventually saw off a strong run-in challenge from amateur jockey

Sam Waley-Cohen Sam Bernard Waley-Cohen (born 15 April 1982) is an English entrepreneur and retired amateur National Hunt jockey. Horse racing Waley-Cohen was reported in the sports pages in 2007 when he came 5th on his father's horse Liberthine in the Grand ...

on Oscar Time who secured second place. Third was

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

winner

Tony McCoy Sir Anthony Peter McCoy (born 4 May 1974), commonly known as AP McCoy or Tony McCoy, is a Northern Irish former National Hunt horse racing jockey. Based in Ireland and Britain, McCoy rode a record 4,358 winners and was Champion Jockey a recor ...

, twelve lengths behind the second. 15/2 favourite The Midnight Club made a mistake at the third fence and finished sixth. State of Play, the eleven-year-old 28/1 shot trained by Welshman Evan Williams, finished in the top four for the third successive National. Nineteen runners completed the course, including three of the six 100/1 shots. This was the highest number of finishers since

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

when twenty-one horses passed the finishing post.

Non-finishers

Ten horses fell during the race, four unseated their riders, two were brought down by other fallers and five were pulled up. The 100/1 outsider Santa's Son had led the field over the

Canal Turn The Canal Turn is a fence on Aintree Racecourse's National Course and thus is jumped during the Grand National steeplechase which is held annually at the racecourse, located near Liverpool, England. Named for the Leeds & Liverpool Canal which pass ...

, but the short-distance runner eventually fell out of contention and jockey Jamie Moore pulled him up before the 27th fence. Killyglen fell at the 27th, having been close to leader Ballabriggs at the beginning of the second circuit. Ornais and Dooneys Gate both suffered fatal falls on the first circuit. Ornais incurred a

cervical fracture A cervical fracture, commonly called a broken neck, is a fracture of any of the seven cervical vertebrae in the neck. Examples of common causes in humans are traffic collisions and diving into shallow water. Abnormal movement of neck bones or pie ...

at the fourth fence (a plain 4 ft 10-inch obstacle) and Dooneys Gate fractured his

thoracolumbar Each vertebra (: vertebrae) is an irregular bone with a complex structure composed of bone and some hyaline cartilage, that make up the vertebral column or spine, of vertebrates. The proportions of the vertebrae differ according to their spinal ...

at fence six (the 5 ft

Becher's Brook Becher's Brook ( ) is a fence jumped during the Grand National, a National Hunt Horse racing, horse race held annually at Aintree Racecourse near Liverpool, England. It is jumped twice during the race, as the and fence, as well as on four othe ...

). Aintree had made significant modifications to its ''National Course'' in recent years, including improving veterinary facilities and reducing the severity of some fences, but another notable change was highlighted in this race – that the course has been widened to allow more fences to be bypassed if necessary. As the remaining contenders on the second circuit approached the 20th fence, arrowed signposts and marshals waving chequered flags signalled them to bypass on the outside as Ornais' body was covered by a tarpaulin on the landing side. Two jumps later and they were again diverted, this time around the famous Becher's Brook, where veterinary staff attended to Dooneys Gate. This was the first time since the modern course was finalised in the 1880s that only 28 fences were jumped.

Broadcasting

The Grand National has the status of being an event of significant national interest within the United Kingdom and thus is listed on the

Ofcom Code on Sports and Other Listed and Designated Events The Ofcom Code on Sports and Other Listed & Designated Events is a series of regulations issued originally by the Independent Television Commission (ITC) then by Ofcom when the latter assumed most of the ITC's responsibilities in 2003, which is des ...

. The race therefore must be covered live on free-to-air terrestrial television in the UK. The

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

aired the race on radio for the 80th consecutive year and on television for the 52nd year.

Clare Balding Clare Victoria Balding (born 29 January 1971) is an English broadcast journalist and author. She currently presents programmes for BBC Sport and Channel 4, and previously for BT Sport. She also formerly presented ''Good Morning Sunday'' on BBC ...

presented the BBC's television coverage, supported by Rishi Persad and retired jockey

Richard Pitman Richard Thomas Pitman (born 21 January 1943) is a retired British jump jockey who rode 427 winners in his career, including Lanzarote in the 1974 Champion Hurdle. He won the King George VI Chase at Kempton Park Racecourse twice, the Whitbread G ...

, which was broadcast on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

and, for the second year,

BBC HD BBC HD was a high-definition television channel owned by the BBC. The channel was initially run as a trial from 15 May 2006 until becoming a full service on 1 December 2007 before its discontinuation on 25 March 2013. It broadcast only during ...

. Former National-winning jockeys

Richard Dunwoody Thomas Richard Dunwoody MBE (born 18 January 1964) is a retired British National Hunt jockey. He was a three-time British Champion Jockey. He was the only jockey of his generation to win the Grand National, Cheltenham Gold Cup and Champion Hu ...

and

Mick Fitzgerald Michael Fitzgerald (born 10 May 1970) is a retired Irish National Hunt jockey and current television racing pundit. Fitzgerald rode for the majority of his career in Great Britain and less often Ireland. Career as a Jockey Mick Fitzgerald's ...

provided expert analysis, while betting news was provided by Gary Wiltshire and

John Parrott John Stephen Parrott (born 11 May 1964) is an English former professional snooker player who won the 1991 World Snooker Championship. He came to prominence in the mid to late 1980s, and remained within the top 16 of the world rankings for 14 ...

Suzi Perry Suzi Perry (born May 1970) is a British television presenter covering Grand Prix motorcycle racing for BT Sport. She is known for covering Grand Prix motorcycle racing for the BBC for 13 years, ''The Gadget Show'' on Channel 5 for eight years an ...

was due to be providing soundbites from spectators but did not take part in the programme. Her place was taken by last-minute replacement Dan Walker who had been at Aintree to present ''

Football Focus ''Football Focus'' is a BBC television magazine programme launched in 1974, broadcast live on BBC One on Saturday lunchtimes during the football season. The programme, along with '' Final Score'', is a remnant from the former flagship sports show ...

'', aired prior to the National. The race commentary team was led by Jim McGrath, who called the winner home for the 14th consecutive year; he was supported by

Ian Bartlett Ian Bartlett is a horse racing commentator and occasionally was an analyst for the BBC. He has also commentated for Channel 4 Racing. Bartlett has always been associated with his role at Aintree. He commentated for SIS's feed of their Grand Natio ...

and

Darren Owen Darren Charles Owen is a horse racing commentator, born 3 June 1967 in St. Asaph, North Wales. Having been interested in horse racing since a young age, Owen won the regional final of an amateur sports commentator competition, organised by BBC ...

. As well as being streamed to UK viewers on

BBC Online BBC Online, formerly known as BBCi, is the BBC's online service. It is a large network of websites including such high-profile sites as BBC News and BBC Sport, Sport, the on-demand video and radio services branded BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds, t ...

BBC Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It broadcasts mainly news, sport, Talk show, discussion, interviews and phone-ins, and is on air 24 hours a day. It is the principal BBC radio station Broadca ...

also aired the race, presented by Mark Chapman. The BBC later received some criticism for failing to mention the deaths of Ornais and Dooneys Gate until the end of its broadcast.

Aftermath

The unusually warm and sunny weather conditions were credited with helping the 2011 meeting set a Grand National attendance record. A crowd of 70,291 people attended the main Saturday race day, and a total of 153,583 attended over the course of the three-day meeting, beating the previous record of 151,660 set in

. The Grand National is always a major event for bookmakers, particularly in the United Kingdom. An estimated £300 million in bets were said to have been placed on the 2011 race, including some from as far afield as Australia, Bermuda and Kazakhstan, with British troops in Afghanistan also joining in. It is estimated that nearly half of the adult population of the UK bets on the Grand National. Ballabriggs cropped

The race received a significant amount of negative media coverage over the two equine fatalities, which were more publicly noticeable than in prior Nationals due to two fences being bypassed for the first time. Those watching the race on television were given clear views of the tarpaulin-covered body of Ornais at the fourth fence, and an aerial shot at Becher's showed veterinary staff attending to the fatally injured Dooneys Gate, while the remaining runners diverted around them. Andrew Taylor, director of the animal rights group

Animal Aid Animal Aid is a British animal rights organisation, founded in 1977 by Jean Pink. The group campaigns peacefully against the consumption of animals as food and against animal cruelty such as their use for medical research—and promotes a cruel ...

, called for an outright ban of the Grand National, saying: "It's a deliberately hazardous, challenging and predictably lethal event." The

RSPCA The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) is a charity operating in England and Wales which promotes animal welfare. The RSPCA is funded primarily by voluntary donations. Founded in 1824, it is the oldest and largest a ...

's equine consultant David Muir stated: "I was gutted that two horses died... What I will do now is go back and have a look at each element, with the BHA and the racecourse management, to see if the jump contributed to what happened, look at the take-off and landing side and so on, and see if the evidence suggests something can be done about it. I'm trying to make the race better, safer where I can, but the one thing I can never do is eliminate risk: that's always going to be there." Muir did however add: "There's no way I'm going to get the National banned." Aintree's managing director Julian Thick said: "We are desperately sad at the accidents during the running of the Grand National today and our thoughts go out to the connections of Ornais and Dooneys Gate... Only the best horses and the best jockeys are allowed to enter and all horses are inspected by the vet when they arrive at Aintree to ensure that they are fit to race. This year we had 20 horse-catchers, at least two attendants at each of the 16 fences, four stewards to inspect the course, two BHA course inspectors, ten vets, 50 ground staff and 35 ground repair staff... We work closely with animal welfare organisations, such as the RSPCA and

World Horse Welfare World Horse Welfare is a registered charity in the United Kingdom that was previously named the International League for the Protection of Horses. Anne, Princess Royal is its patron. History International League for the Protection of Horses w ...

, to make sure we are up to date with the latest thinking and research... and to make sure that the horses are looked after properly and that the race is run as safely as possible." Veteran trainer

queried the suggestion of reducing the size of the fences in the aftermath of the race. McCain said: "You don't make things better by making it easier. Its speed that does the damage." Champion jockey

also defended the National, saying, "I personally don't think the sport could be in any better shape for horses or jockeys." Ornais's owner, Andy Stewart, later said: "We're still grieving but I think this whole hyped up situation regarding the Grand National is totally wrong... National Hunt racing is safer and compliant with every single sport that goes along. My son snowboarded in France and, unfortunately, he had an accident and he'll never walk again. Why don't we just get on with it and enjoy the sport?" Winning jockey Jason Maguire was subsequently handed a five-day ban by the stewards for excessive use of the whip on Ballabriggs in the closing stages and the horse required oxygen after crossing the line.

References

{{Grand National 2011

Grand National The Grand National is a National Hunt horse race held annually at Aintree Racecourse in Aintree, Merseyside, England. First run in 1839, it ...

Grand Grand may refer to: People with the name * Grand (surname) * Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor Places * Grand, Oklahoma, USA * Grand, Vosges, village and commune in France with Gallo-Roman amphitheatre * Grand County (disambiguation), ...

April 2011 sports events in the United Kingdom

Race card

Non-finishers

Broadcasting

Aftermath

See also

References