LOOK SHARPE: A Right Royal National Loch Mess

Sports betting PR legend GRAHAM SHARPE looks ahead to the 2024 Grand National in his latest ‘LOOK SHARPE’ column…

THE 1956 GRAND NATIONAL will never be forgotten – but nor will it ever be explained. For the race produced the most bizarre finish of any running of the race – and deprived Royal owner, the Queen Mother, of a place in racing history.

Her runner, the 10 year old Devon Loch, ridden by a future author specialising in racing-based page-turners, who would, though, never devise a more baffling mystery, Dick Francis, was on the run-in, cruising to victory, only to collapse suddenly, dramatically and bafflingly, resulting in victory for 100/7 chance, E.S.B. ridden by Dave Dick.

At the time no one could make sense of what had happened and, despite many and varied attempts to explain this uniquely bizarre incident, no one ever will.

The horse’s jockey blamed the crowd: ‘There were 250,000 people at Aintree that day, and 249,999 were cheering for Devon Loch. The horse pricked up its ears and thought, ‘God! What is THAT?!’

Fellow jockey, Bryan Marshall, had also ridden Devon Loch, in a previous race in which, he claimed, the horse had very nearly collapsed, declaring, ‘It was just as though he had broken a blood vessel badly.’

An Aintree vet declared at the time, that the horse had suffered an attack of cramp, but fellow equine vet, Dr Alastair Fraser, blamed an infestation of small, red worms for the collapse, diagnosing the problem as ‘iliac thrombosis’ – apparently brought about by the worms, which make their way to the iliac artery in the hind legs, and can cause clotting. If a large clot breaks off, the leg can collapse, he explained, but the symptoms then vanish as the horse’s blood washes the clots away,

Former trainer turned racing writer, Ivor Herbert blamed ‘a sudden, temporary muscular seizure’ , while the Daily Telegraph reported the thoughts of an anonymous trainer, who ‘felt certain the horse had been electrocuted through an underground cable that shorted on the horse’s racing plates.’

Another contemporary explanation was that the horse had suffered a minor heart attack.

Some theories veered towards the extraordinary – one put forward, was that, given that the incident took place alongside a water jump, the horse had become aware of, or even sensed, a reflection from the nearby water, and attempted to jump this non-existent obstacle.

The Guardian’s ‘Special Correspondent’ of the time, declared: ‘His sudden collapse looked to me to be of the same kind as the marathon runner’s; namely cramp and exhaustion, leaving Francis, fort all his crouching determination and skill, helpless to do anything about it.’

There was, of course, a conspiracy theory, which outlined an elaborate race-rigging plot, involving whistled signals, which prompted the horse to collapse.

However, it has to be said, that definitely the most likely theory, was explained by The People newspaper, albeit a mere thirty five years later, when it concluded that the horse had been feeling restricted by an over-tight girth, as a result of which, declared writer, Brian Madley, ‘I can reveal that Devon Loch’s back legs almost certainly gave way, because of the most natural reason in the world – it let rip with a good, old-fashioned fart -pardon me, Ma’am.’

Intriguingly, this was not the first time such a near-finish drama had occurred – as a horse had seemed to jump some form of ghost fence on the Grand National. In 1901, jockey

Arthur Nightingall was cruising to victory on board Grudon when his mount made to jump a fence that wasn’t there. But on that occasion, the pair somehow recovered and still had a sufficient advantage, to run on, and win the race.

The Queen Mother herself, was philosophical, accepting: ‘Oh, that’s racing.’

GRAHAM SHARPE

Views of authors do not necessarily represent views of Star Sports Bookmakers.