The Grand National
grandnational.org.uk is your complete guide to the Aintree Grand National and an indispensable aid to finding the winner of the most famous and prestigious horse race in the world. Click here for the full 2011 John Smith's Grand National Result
The Grand National steeplechase is one of the highlights of the entire sporting year and the four-and-a-half mile marathon race captures the imagination of millions around the world, thanks to its ability to consistently produce thrilling finishes and heart-warming stories, as horse and rider try to conquer the mighty Aintree fences.
Ballabriggs produced a superb display to win the 2011 Grand National, the 164th running of the race, under jockey Jason Maguire. It gives trainer Donald McCain a famous win following in the footsteps of his legendary father Ginger, whose four victories in the race included a unique treble with Red Rum.
The 14-1 shot was ahead throughout the race and powered home ahead of Oscar Time, ridden by Cheltenham Gold Cup-winning jockey Sam Waley-Cohen. Oscar Time was our Grand National tip this year and hence we fell agonisingly close to tipping the Grand National winner for a fourth time in eight years. However, also at odds of 14-1, it gave a generous return for each-way bets and if you'd like more of our free horse racing tips please visit our free tipping website: www.racetips.co.uk.
Last year's winner Don't Push It was a brave third under Tony McCoy ahead of State of Play and Niche Market. Ballabriggs had been aimed specifically at Aintree and the victory gives owner Trevor Hemmings his second triumph in the race after Hedgehunter's win in the 2005 edition.
Maguire was in danger of missing the ride after a bad fall on Thursday that left him with stitches in his elbow and damage to his hand and he had to pass a doctor's examination on Friday. He could have ridden Silver Birch in the 2007 renewal but stayed loyal to McCain's Cloudy Lane and saw Silver Birch triumph and probably thought his chance of glory had gone. Dismounting immediately after the line to give his mount a well-deserved breather, he said: "This is crazy. I've got to thank Donald, Mr Hemmings, my mother and father, everybody. It's a dream come true. He loved it."
Donald McCain was only a child when record-breaking Red Rum won three Grand National's and finished runner-up twice in the 1970s. But he has learned from his father and took over the training reins in 2006 when Ginger retired, two years after another Grand National triumph with Amberleigh House.
The 10-year-old Ballabriggs had won five of his six races immediately before the National and relished the daunting challenge. At one stage it looked as though Waley-Cohen, friend of Kate Middleton, The Duchess of Cambridge, might be set for victory. But as Oscar Time came to his side at The Elbow, Maguire pulled out more on his mount as the front two pulled clear, with Don't Push It 12 lengths behind the second.
Winning owner Trevor Hemmings praised the combination of horse and rider. He said: "Absolute corker of a ride, superb ride, unbelievable. You cannot do anymore than have a horse as good as that and a jockey as good as that. No one is entitled to that trophy. You cannot describe the feeling - it’s incredible."
Hemmings added: "Donald has done a brilliant job with Ballabriggs, and he clearly learned plenty from Ginger as they now have five National trophies on their mantlepiece. I was confused when Hedgehunter won, and I was not ready for it. Don't get me wrong, I loved every minute of it, but I only half got it. In contrast, today I lived every second of it, and though I have been kicked, pushed and trodden on with everyone wanting to congratulate me, I absolutely loved it."
Our site contains everything you need to know about this magical race, including an in-depth Grand National race preview and details of all the Grand National runners.
In many ways it is the history of this great event that makes it so special, and the race has made the likes of Red Rum, Aldaniti, Jenny Pitman and Ginger McCain household names. See our Grand National history section for more details.
With history in mind, we are advocates of learning lessons from the past when trying to find the National winners of the future. 
Thus, our site includes a Grand National trends section dedicated to identifying those vital statistics that all successful horses have had in common.
For example, did you know that only Red Rum has managed to carry more than 11st 5lbs to victory since 1957?
Just as noteworthy is the fact that no seven-year-old has won for 70 years and we have to go back another 28 years to find the last successful six-year-old. In fact, since 1992, only four of the 34 six and seven-year-olds to take their chance have even completed the course. Experience, therefore, counts in the Grand National and 12 of the last 15 winners (including the last 6) were aged either 9 or 10. In that period there has also been one eight-year-old, one eleven-year-old and one and twelve-year-old winner, although the last teenager to win the race was 87 years ago (Sergeant Murphy in 1923) and none have made the frame since 1969.
For those wanting to see this magnificent event live, we have all of the information you’ll need to make the most of your visit to Aintree, including information on getting to Aintree, ticket details and a summary of all of the enclosures and facilities at the racecourse many of which have been significantly upgraded in recent seasons.
The Aintree Grand National was first run in 1839 and the famous four-and-a-half mile marathon now attracts a worldwide television audience of 600 million people. Bruce Hobbs, aged 17, was the youngest winning jockey in 1938, on Battleship - the 
smallest horse ever to win. Dick Saunders, aged 48, was the oldest successful rider on Grittar in 1982, his first and only Grand National ride.
As well as its fascinating past, Aintree’s unique course contributes to the mystique surrounding the event. The fence-building programme starts approximately three weeks before the Grand National meeting is run, with around 150 tonnes of spruce branches sourced and transported from forests in the Lake District. Each fence is made from a wooden frame and covered with the distinctive green spruce.
The Grand National course remains the ultimate test of horse and jockey. The race comprises two full circuits of a 2¼ mile (3,600 metres) racetrack, where challengers face 30 of the most testing fences in the world of jump racing including Becher’s Brook and The Chair, now two of the most well known landmarks in the country.
When it was first run at Aintree in 1839, the race featured a solid brick wall as one of the obstacles, although that was abandoned after five years.
No horse has run in the Grand National more times than Manifesto, who competed in eight renewals of the event between 1895 and 1904. Manifesto won the race twice, in 1897 and 1899, and finished third on three occasions.
Jenny Pitman was the first woman to have trained a Grand National winner, capturing the race for the first time with Corbiere in 1983. She succeeded again with Royal Athlete in 1995 and finished second 
with Garrison Savannah in 1991. In 2009, Venetia Williams became the second woman to saddle a Grand National winner, with 100-1 shot - Mon Mome.
Becher's Brook, the sixth fence on the first circuit, was named after Captain Martin Becher. He was unseated from his mount, Conrad, and fell into the ditch when leading in the first ever Grand National in 1839. "Water tastes disgusting without the benefits of whisky" he reflected and the obstacle bore his name from that day onwards.
The least number of horses to complete was two, in 1928: Tipperary Tim and Billy Barton (who remounted). In 2001, when Red Marauder beat Smarty, only four of the forty horses completed, two of these being remounted.
The Grand National is also one of the rare major sporting events in which amateurs still can, and do, take on professionals. This applies to both trainers and jockeys. In the 163 runnings of the Grand National it has been won on no less than 41 occasions by a horse ridden by an amateur jockey, although it's been 21 years since Marcus Armytage won in record time on Mr Frisk in 1990.
That this is the case is hardly surprising as the sport has become ever more professional and the prize money, which now stands at £950,000, has risen so dramatically that few trainers or owners will entrust potential winners to jockeys still perceived in some quarters as inexperienced or part-timers.
However, part of the Grand National's enduring charm is not the amateurs who succeeded, but those riders from the Corinthian ranks whose fruitless and often hopeless attempts added so much colour to the event; the Duque de Alberquerque, Tim Durant, Aidan O’Connell and Brod Munro-Wilson. A mix of playboys and men who worked on oil rigs as deep sea divers for six months a year and spent the other six trying to win the National. We may not see their like again, but the amateur’s long love affair with the Grand National is not over yet.