by David Owen
Cloud of steam – Liverpool Daily Post, 10 April 1967.
Pat McCarron, ‘Everybody was just panic-stricken …’ – telephone interview with author.
Mellor, ‘They were on the inside …’ – face-to-face interview with author. Mellor would go on to win two races in a week on Popham Down in 1969.
John Lawrence was using – and had been ejected from – the saddle with which Fred Winter rode to victory in the race on Kilmore in 1962 – Liverpool Daily Post, 8 April 1967.
Michael Daley – email correspondence with author.
Broderick, ‘Give us a leg-up …’ – Go Down to the Beaten, Chris Pitt, Racing Post Books, 2011, page 127.
Kirtle Lad won the 1968 Yorkshire Grand National, but was killed at Market Rasen in his next race.
Hayhurst, ‘landed sprinting …’ – telephone interview with author.
Demented serpents – Horse and Hound, 15 April 1967.
Three horses cleared the 23rd at the first time of asking – four if you include the riderless April Rose. Rondetto fell there again the following year.
Johnny Haine died in 1998.
Gaselee, ‘went right up the horse’s neck …’ – telephone interview with author.
David Mould, ‘My brain was telling me …’ – telephone interview with author. As can happen in racing, Mould seems to have had a tempestuous relationship with Peter Cazalet, Different Class’s trainer. Cazalet was a ‘tyrant’, he told me. ‘Very fair, but what a tyrant. The rows we used to have! He used to sack me every week. I used to go to the Queen Mum and say, “He sacked me again.” She got me my job back every week.’
Pat Buckley, ‘I was exactly where I wanted to be …’ – telephone interview with author. In the 1968 Grand National, Buckley rode Rutherfords to fourth place. He said, ‘He was a very good horse. He had his own mind about racing: some days he would, some days he wouldn’t.’
Eddie Harty, ‘It all happened in front of me …’ – telephone interview with author.
McCarron, ‘I was in the next parish …’ – telephone interview with author.
Chapter 22
John Pinfold – face-to-face interview with author.
Michael O’Hehir – as the commentator said subsequently, ‘If I hadn’t had the good fortune to be standing there and to go over and ask Johnny Buckingham what that horse was, when all the horses fell and this lone one came along, I’d have been going through a racecard wondering, “What is that thing in black?”’ His account can be listened to at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kA_FmPuXz4
John Buckingham, ‘I just galloped into them …’ – face-to-face interviews with author; Financial Times, 5 April 2003; Tales from the Weighing Room, John Buckingham, Pelham Books, 1987, page 23.
Buckingham’s winning ride at Market Rasen – Horse and Hound, 15 April 1967 (article by John Lawrence).
Pat Taaffe, ‘I think if you’d asked me …’ – My Life and Arkle’s, Pat Taaffe, Stanley Paul, 1972 page 70.
Josh Gifford, ‘Jumping like a buck …’ – Gifford gave an account of the incident to the Midlands Grand National Club’s 2011 Grand National preview night in Stirchley. The event was organised by author Chris Pitt.
Brian Fletcher, ‘I was thrown off the horse …’ – telephone interview with author.
Tommy Carberry, ‘This carry-on …’ – telephone interview with author.
Jackie Cullen, who won the 1973 Irish Grand National, was found dead at home with gunshot wounds in 2001.
Fredith’s Son – My Life and Arkle’s, Pat Taaffe, Stanley Paul, 1972, page 76.
Francis Shortt, ‘Not going all that sweetly …’ – telephone interview with author.
[Shortt] ‘had time to pick his passage’ – Irish Field, 15 April 1967.
Shortt got over at third attempt – telephone interview with author.
Terry Biddlecombe, Greek Scholar ‘always wanted to please’ – face-to-face interview with author.
Biddlecombe, ‘Come on lads! …’ – Go Down to the Beaten, Chris Pitt, Racing Post Books, 2011, page 127.
Pinfold, ‘I did take one …’ – face-to-face interview with author.
Kempton leapt onto a table – face-to-face interview with author.
Mac Bennellick – Sunday Express, 9 April 1967; Havering Recorder, 14 April 1967.
Chipping Warden football matched halted – telephone interview with Alison Grant, Buckingham’s sister-in-law.
Cyril Watkins retreating to the garden – Sunday Express, 9 April 1967.
Dennis Lewell – email correspondence with Lewell’s friend Graham Sharpe.
Eric Brown – telephone interview with author.
Buckingham cast as bandit escaping with the loot – A Horse Called Freddie, Vian Smith, Stanley Paul, 1967, page 138.
This hole in the 28th fence may well have been punched by Ronald’s Boy, whose race was ended there on the first circuit when it was the 12th.
George Pottinger hitting car dashboard – telephone interview with his son Piers.
Packed Home’s broken pedal bone – telephone interview with Tommy Carberry, his jockey.
This second loose horse may have been Leedsy.
Chapter 23
An exultant Clifford Booth … – face-to-face interview with author.
John Kempton, table ‘creaked and groaned …’ – face-to-face interview with author.
Tony Hutt’s extra journey – face-to-face interviews with Geoff Stocker, the other driver used by the Kemptons, and Colin Hemsley, head lad.
Iris Watkins, I had to ‘hide my face …’ – Sunday Express, 9 April 1967.
Mac Bennellick, ‘Thank God…” – ibid.
Dinner at the George – email correspondence with Zelda Blackadder, family friend.
Ann Buckingham, ‘He’s won …’ – Daily Express, 30 March 1968.
Josh Gifford, ‘I thought I’d catch him …’ – Account given to Midlands Grand National Club’s 2011 preview night.
Brian Fletcher won the race on Red Alligator in 1968 and Red Rum in 1973 and 1974. During a telephone interview, Fletcher told me he had walked the course ‘three or four times’. Such attention to detail, combined with a knack – 1967 excepted – for being in the right place at the right time (or at least not being in the wrong place at the wrong time), help to explain Fletcher’s exemplary Aintree record.
David Nicholson, ‘tremendously determined …’ – Tales from the Weighing Room, John Buckingham, Pelham Books, 1987, Foreword.
Tim Brookshaw’s ‘few bob’ on Honey End – Daily Mirror, 5 April 1967.
David Coleman – The BBC man later revealed that he had drawn Foinavon in the corporation’s sweepstake. – Racing Post, 14 April 2012.
Josh Gifford’s lost bet – account given to Midlands Grand National Club’s 2011 preview night.
Absence of winning owners in 1962 and 1963 – Go Down to the Beaten, Chris Pitt, Racing Post Books, 2011, page 95; The Times, 1 April 1963.
Light-hearted suggestion of Popham Down’s owner – face-to-face interview with Georgina Galt.
Anne, Duchess of Westminster present – Sunday Telegraph, 9 April 1967.
Nobby Howard escorting Gregory Peck – telephone interview with author.
Gifford puts half-a-crown in the champagne cork – Tales from the Weighing Room, John Buckingham, Pelham Books, 1987, page 29.
Envelope addressed to ‘The Winner …’ – ibid.
John Pinfold – face-to-face interview with author.
Michael Daley – email correspondence with author.
Clement Freud’s house burgled – the Sun, 10 April 1967.
Buckingham’s landlady suggests a night out in Liverpool – Daily Express, 30 March 1968.
Flags and paint at Buckingham’s house – Tales from the Weighing Room, John Buckingham, Pelham Books, 1987, page 30.
‘None of the usual riotous scenes …’ – Liverpool Daily Post, 8 and 10 April 1967.
Chapter 24
Peggy’s story – e
mail correspondence with Christopher Morris.
£10 each-way – this means one £10 bet on the horse to win at the bookmaker’s advertised odds (in Foinavon’s case, 100/1) and one £10 bet on the horse to finish in the first four, usually at a quarter of the advertised odds, i.e. 25/1.
As Morris recalls, Peggy’s tips were not very successful in other years. Then again, picking the winner from a forty-plus horse field is a much more difficult proposition than choosing the winning team in a football match.
Several million people bet on the National – in November 1959 Richard Stanley, MP for North Fylde, stated in parliament that over 50 per cent of the adult population had a bet on the Derby, the other race on the calendar to attract mass interest from individuals not otherwise interested in horse racing.
Peter Chapman, ‘Tony came running back …’ – email correspondence with author.
Tote’s 445/1 payout – telephone interview with Grand National historian Reg Green.
New Betting and Gaming Act – The House of Commons second reading debate can be consulted at: http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1959/nov/16/betting-and-gaming-bill
7,000 betting-shops opened in May 1961 – BOS magazine, May/June 2011, page 21.
Cyril Watkins’s ante-post bets of £16 each-way – Sunday Express, 9 April 1967.
Iris Watkins’s winnings – Sunday Times, 9 April 1967.
In April 1967, you could have bought a dozen Hillman Minx family salooncars and still had plenty of change from £10,000.
William Hill, ‘We could not …’ – Sports Mail, 8 April 1967.
John Banks’s £25,000 Grand National earnings – Sunday Post, 9 April 1967.
Lucy Geddes – email correspondence with Joan Smith, Lucy Geddes’s daughter.
Helen Dillon – email correspondence with author.
Vivian Humphries – telephone interview with Darren, Humphries’s son.
Nan Toone – Daily Mirror, 10 April 1967.
Martyne Millington – ibid.
Cream cakes at Royal Berkshire Hospital – email correspondence with ex-employee Eileen Spragg.
Alison Grant – telephone interview with author.
Patricia Rogers’s weblog on Foinavon can be viewed at: http://patricia1957.wordpress.com/2010/02/23/1967-the-year-i-won-the-grand-national/
John Warham – telephone interview with author.
Nigel Everett – face-to-face interview with author.
House in Criccieth – email correspondence with Ian Atkinson. A reference to the house on www.criccieth-history.co.uk says it is “pink-stuccoed” and was “once owned by the Bird’s Custard family”. I am told this information comes from Criccieth, a Heritage Walk, a recently republished book by Eira and James Gleasure.
House in Yorkshire – email correspondence with Joyce Balding, friend and neighbour of the Sowerbys.
Chay Blyth, ‘Had to have a bit on’ – Sporting Life, 10 April 1967.
David Radford – letter to author.
Sussex man with correct 1-2-3 – Sunday Times, 9 April 1967.
Jack Haggerty – Sunday Post, 9 April 1967.
Ernest Sharps – Racing Post, 4 April 1997.
Alan Whitehead – email correspondence with author.
Bob Knight – email correspondence with Knight’s sons, Martin and Steve.
Banbury bookie’s bad luck – telephone interview with Paul Lambourne.
Alan Sweeney – email correspondence with Graham Sharpe, Sweeney’s friend.
Everton fans’ sweepstake – telephone interview with Michael Walters.
Chapter 25
Foinavon ‘lame as anything’ – face-to-face interview with stable lad Clifford Booth.
The suspensory ligament is situated between a horse’s flexor tendon and the lower part of its cannon bone, which is like its shin. Head lad Colin Hemsley recalls that they always had to take great care with Foinavon’s suspensories.
‘The one-speed winner …’ – Daily Mail, 10 April 1967.
‘A dozen packets of Polos’ – Daily Telegraph, 10 April 1967.
John Kempton: Foinavon jumps ‘like a cat’ – Daily Mail, 10 April 1967.
Other horses getting agitated – face-to-face interview with Colin Hemsley, head lad.
Jack Kempton taking back his £3 – face-to-face interview with Clifford Booth.
Michael Phillips, ‘A sad chapter …’ – The Times, 10 April 1967.
Peter Wilson, ‘Rarely seen …’ – Daily Mirror, 10 April 1967.
Hotspur, ‘Most visitors …’ – Daily Telegraph, 10 April 1967.
‘The most fantastic moment …’ – News of the World, 9 April 1967.
Don Cox, ‘We must accept …’ – Sun, 10 April 1967.
Spotlight column – Daily Mirror, 10 April 1967.
Mullingar’s ‘lazy horse’ headline – telephone interview with Kieran O’Donnell, local resident.
John Lawrence article – ‘One Big Hard Luck Story …’ – Horse and Hound, 15 April 1967.
Newsreel footage of the 1928 Grand National may be viewed online at: http://www.britishpathe.com/video/the-worlds-greatest-race/query/1928+grand+national
‘So as to reduce …’ – The Times, 2 April 1928.
Buckingham’s champagne celebration – Daily Mirror, 10 April 1967.
At London Palladium – face-to-face interview with author, also Tales from the Weighing Room, John Buckingham, Pelham Books, 1987, page 30.
Buckingham meeting Ron Atkins and Bruce Gregory at Plumpton – ibid., page 33.
Autograph/barber’s shop incidents – ibid., page 33.
Watkins’s to keep Foinavon ‘for ever’ – Evening Post, 8 April 1967.
Watkins parties – various sources, including Zelda Blackadder, family friend, and Paul Nixon, nephew.
Mac Bennellick, a ‘Face in the News’ – Havering Recorder, 14 April 1967.
Watkins and Bennellick visiting Compton – face-to-face interview with Clifford Booth.
Chapter 26
‘The first horse …’ – Daily Mail, 26 April 1967.
Reception details taken from contemporary reports, head lad Colin Hemsley and horsebox-driver Geoff Stocker.
Visit to Elm Park, Reading – Evening Post, 22 April 1967.
Other ‘celebrity’ appearances by Foinavon – sources include Geoff Stocker, the Stratford-upon-Avon Herald and the Daily Express.
Clifford Booth, ‘We had it all held up …’ – face-to-face interview with author.
‘Since Foinavon surprised everybody …’ – Daily Express, 26 April 1967.
Cyril Watkins, ‘He is the most popular horse …’ – Daily Mail, 26 April 1967.
John Kempton, ‘It was always …’ – face-to-face interview with author.
Donald Campbell was attempting to break the world water-speed record.
Kempton advertising for more horses to train – Evening News & Star, 17 August 1967.
One of the Kempton-trained winners, Kelvinnie, was carrying Cyril Watkins’s black, red and yellow colours. Ironically, the jockey beaten into second place was John Buckingham.
Bassnet – one of the first-fence fallers at Aintree.
All horse racing in Britain cancelled – The Times, 29 November 1967.
Chapter 27
Cheshire lost nearly a third of its cattle – The Times, 22 January 1968.
William Hill £1 million a week turnover drop – The Times, 29 November 1967.
Tophams request for extended Grand National qualification period – minutes of Tophams Ltd board meetings, volume XIII.
102 entries for 1968 National – The Times, 26 January 1968.
Wilson’s broadcast can be listened to at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/19/newsid_3208000/3208396.stm
Discussion with Colonel Livingstone Learmouth – minutes of Tophams Ltd board meetings, volume XIII.
Master of Art did run in the 1968 Grand National, falling at the 27th fence.
The landscape had turn
ed white … – face-to-face interview with Colin Hems-ley, the Kemptons’ head lad.
A bitterly cold day at Ascot – The Times, 23 February 1968.
Three days before the Wetherby race, on 6 March, it was announced that Honey End, the 1967 Grand National runner-up, would not be returning to Liverpool in 1968, ‘owing to training trouble’ (Sporting Life, 7 March 1968). He had not run since finishing last in the Hennessy Gold Cup, the last big race before the sport was halted by the foot-and-mouth epizootic, at Newbury on 25 November. He would eventually avenge his defeat by Foinavon in the 1967 National, closer to home, in Sussex.
John Buckingham forced to sit out 1968 Grand National – Tales from the Weighing Room, John Buckingham, Pelham Books, 1987, page 35.
Phil Harvey gets the Aintree ride – in the racecards published by the Liverpool Daily Post, Johnny Lehane was listed on Monday as Foinavon’s jockey. By Tuesday, this had changed to either Lehane or Harvey and on Thursday 28 March, two days before the race, to just Harvey.
Jenkins’s ‘nasty but necessary’ Budget – The Times, 20 March 1968. The attention of Cyril Watkins and Mac Bennellick, Foinavon’s football pools concessionaire owners, would also have been captured by an increase from 25 to 33 per cent in the duty levied on the pools and fixed-odds football betting.
‘A much better atmosphere …’ – The Times, 1 April 1968.
‘Summer in spring …’ – The Times, 30 March 1968.
Liverpool bus strike – Liverpool Daily Post, 28 March 1968.
Grand National bus ticket advertisements – minutes of Tophams Ltd board meetings, volume XIII.
Hemsley sleeping in horsebox – face-to-face interview with author.
John Kempton, ‘About 10 million to one …’ – Evening News & Star, 28 March 1968. Mandarin’s assessment in the Liverpool Daily Post before the race was fairly typical. Another win for Foinavon and ‘I’ll give up betting for life,’ he wrote.
Computer flunked the test – in the machine’s defence, it got the seventh and eighth placed horses (Highland Wedding and Reynard’s Heir) spot on. It also included the real-life second- , third- and fourth-place finishers in its first ten, but in ninth, first and second places.