Mr. What was an Irish bred, Irish-trained
Thoroughbred
The Thoroughbred is a list of horse breeds, horse breed developed for Thoroughbred racing, horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thorough ...
racehorse noted for winning the
1958 Grand National
The 1958 Grand National was the 112th renewal of the Grand National horse race that took place at Aintree near Liverpool, England, on 29 March 1958.
From an initial entry of 56 The field of 31 runners competed for record prize money of nearl ...
.
An eight-year-old
gelding
A gelding (Help:IPA/English, /ˈɡɛldɪŋ/) is a castration, castrated male horse or other equine, such as a pony, donkey or a mule. The term is also used with certain other animals and livestock, such as domesticated Camelidae, camels. By compa ...
owned by David Coughlan, trained by
Tom Taaffe
Tom Taaffe (b. 15 June 1963) is a former Irish racehorse trainer who was based at Portree Stables, Boston, Ardclough, Straffan, in County Kildare. He trained the 2005 Cheltenham Gold Cup winning horse Kicking King, who also won the Boxing Day ...
. Mr. What was ridden by
The Queen Mother's jockey
Arthur Freeman who put up overweight. Appearing ideally suited by the heavy conditions, the horse won by 30 lengths, despite stumbling at the last fence. Mr. What finished third in both the
1959
Events
January
* January 1 – Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance.
* January 2 – Soviet lunar probe Luna 1 is the first human-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reaches the ...
and the
1962
The year saw the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is often considered the closest the world came to a Nuclear warfare, nuclear confrontation during the Cold War.
Events January
* January 1 – Samoa, Western Samoa becomes independent from Ne ...
runnings of the National,
but never won another race.
References
{{reflist
Grand National winners
Thoroughbred family 3-i
Racehorses bred in the United Kingdom
Racehorses trained in Ireland
National Hunt racehorses
1950 racehorse births