Remembering the day Red Rum made Grand National and sporting history

Yet, while the coronavirus pandemic has, regrettably, scuppered Tiger Roll’s attempt to win a third successive National, he would have been hard-pressed to match the drama witnessed on April 2, 1977.

Victorious in 1973 and ‘74, Red Rum – or ‘Rummy’ to his adoring fans was then runner-up in the next two renewals before his date with destiny under Tommy Stack, who was living in North Yorkshire at the time.

This was also the race that saw Charlotte Brew make history by becoming the first female jockey to contest the world’s greatest steeplechase – her mount Barony Fort refused at the fourth last.

By then, Rummy – trained by Ginger McCain – was already cantering to victory. “He’s coming home like a fresh horse,” eulogised the legendary BBC commentator Sir Peter O’Sullevan as crowds spilled onto the track. But would he have won if the lighter weighted Andy Pandy, also the favourite and clear leader, had not fallen after crumpling on landing at Becher’s Brook on the second circuit of the four-and-a-half mile marathon?

It remains one of sport’s great imponderables. “Going down to Becher’s the second time, Andy Pandy was about six lengths in front of me,” Stack emailed The Yorkshire Post on the race’s 40th anniversary. “I could hear the crowd roaring, but couldn’t see why. At Becher’s, I was halfway over when I saw Andy Pandy had fallen and I just missed him.”

McCain, a no-nonsense car dealer who trained horses on Southport’s sands, had a different perspective from the grandstand. “At the next he jumped ahead,” he wrote in his memoir My Colourful Life. “Eight fences stood between my horse and immortality.”

Yet, while McCain’s concern was riderless horses rather than the fitness of Red Rum, Stack sensed the emerging presence of Churchtown Boy on the run to the second last. Incredibly, the horse was running just 48 hours after winning the Topham Chase over the National course.

“He (Churchtown Boy) hit the second-last hard and I knew from then he wasn’t a danger,” Stack told me. “From then on, I knew he wouldn’t be beat, so I just kept him in the middle of the course.”

Meanwhile McCain, who died in 2011, saw it like this: “Two fences out I saw Tommy pinch a look round. He had the race in hand – the Grand National was at the mercy of Red Rum again.”

Safely over the last in the maroon and yellor colours of owner Noel le Mare, Stack was taking nothing for granted after clearing the last of 30 fearsome fences.

“I just kept him to the middle of the track because it went through my mind what happened to Devon Loch (the Queen Mother’s horse fell while leading the 1956 National on the run-in) and kept him away from the shadow of the water jump,” he added.

Yet, while Stack was keeping the horse up to his work, McCain was reflecting on the magnitude of the feat. Not only was his horse making history but he was saving the race – this a time when the National, and future of Aintree, was hanging in the balance.

“The sun was shining. The ground was good. Red looked as though he was loving every minute,” added the trainer who won a fourth National with Amberleigh House in 2004. “The further they go, I thought, the further he is going to win. It was wonderful to watch...I knew it didn’t get much better than this.

“All around me, people rose to acclaim him. People understood that they were bearing witness to history. Running hard for the line, Red Rum was unstoppable. He was simply bloody magical.”

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