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It was a fantastic, historical achievement by Rachael Blackmore on Saturday, but was Henri De Bromhead also creating history by training the first two home in the Grand National?
Agree dashingcustomer, this particular achievement has not had the attention it might have got in other years! Off the top of my head, I can’t even think of any other trainer who has had two horses in the first four in the same year, let alone the first two. Would have thought at least the former of these would have been achieved in the race’s long history.
Evan Williams had a placed horse seven years in a row from 2009-2015 which is quite an achievement. State Of Play, Cappa Bleu and Alvarado were the horses.
De Bromhead became the second trainer to saddle both the winner and runner-up. In 1908 Fred Withington trained Rubio, the 66/1 victor, to beat stable companion Mattie Macgregor (25/1) by 10 lengths.
Rubio became the longest priced winner so far, arguably providing the biggest shock in the National to this point. Not that the relative rookie trainer was surprised, he had fancied the victor more than Mattie Macgregor and felt that stable jockey Billy Bissill had chosen to ride the wrong one. That Fred was correct proved to the benefit of debutant jockey Bryan Bletsoe (son of Bernard who had trained the 1901 winner Grudon).
A possibility that De Bromhead may be unique – but I start with a fascinating tale about Rubio, Golden, and I hope you dont mind me stealing some of your lifework thunder as I idle here lazily in bed – despite the fact I had so much planned for the day.
Bred and born in America Rubio was sold for 15 guineas to a horse trader in England who later sold it on for six times that for hunting. The new owner noticed how much energy the horse had left after a hunt compared to other horses so felt he might be a racer. It won three races and then it broke down. Now the trainer put it to work as a cab horse with a harness and to ferry guests from the railway station to the hotel. He took to the work and was reported to have once done a thirty mile ride. Not in their wildest dreams did the passengers suspect that they were being pulled by a later champion and 10 length winner of the Grand National. The cab work strengthened up his legs and hopefully some of the roads he travelled in Warwickshire were dirt rather than the damaging tarmac of today.
I must get up but…
It has been reported that Rubio finishing first and Mattie Macgregor second meant the trainer Mr. Withington, was probably the first trainer to have the first two home, however Rubio was actually trained by William Costello (left) and not Mr. Withington.
To end this tale Rubio ran in the following years race this time ridden by Bissell but unfortunately he fell. ( maybe the roads were tarmac and poor old Bissell – he got shampooed twice over)
Hi Gamble, yes I have included in my 1908 page Rubio’s origins and that he was once lent out to pull what may be more accurately described as an omnibus.
The contemporary press described Costello as Withington’s assistant and, whilst I have strived in all cases to show the actual trainer rather than the name of the person who held the licence and while Costello may have had some extra responsibility for Rubio, I’m confident that the final say on training came from Withington. Training was all a bit of a grey area though in those days and earlier. For example, Arthur Yates was responsible for many, many winners but his horses always appeared under the name of his head lad, Swatton.
In 1909 Rubio broke down upon landing at the Chair and, Bissill being a tad slow to realise, subsequently fell at the Water Jump.
Just as a heads up GM, there is the Grand National as a specialist subject on Mastermind this coming Monday. Would be interested to know if you get all these right.
GoldenMiller,
I suspect the hard bit for you, will not be getting the answers correct, it will be getting them out before the expert has
Unfortunate it’s on at the same time as Fawlty Towers but will just have to record one or the other.Thank you Golden for putting legs on the wonderful tale of Rubio. You could buy a pint for a penny in 1900.
Bred in Sacramento, California in 1898 (a place I know quite well) by a man who established the world’s biggest stud farm, from a fortune he made from the Californian gold rush, Rubio was sent to the Newmarket Sales in 1899 as a yearling and did not attract much interest but was sold to a horse trader at a discount – a mere 15 guineas to one Septimus Clarke, a man with an eye for a bargain, ( his sire Star Ruby had won nine races, also one over four miles where he came from the back). He was next sold as a foxhunter to Major Frank Pennant for 95 guineas, a steward of Towcester racecourse….and Frank realised the horse had oodles of stamina, and so the story goes on….
I must walk
Thank you Golden Miller and Gamble, interesting stuff. I look forward to seeing your Grand National site in due course Golden Miller, it sounds like a real labour of love.
Yeats, maybe I’ll watch it via the iPlayer then I can pause it for thinking time as I haven’t revised for it!
Marlingford, thanks – yes it is. I’m 5 years in and it will probably take another 5 to finish. Anyone who wants to see the work in progress, the site appears about 8th from the top in Google search in response to the term “Grand National History”. I haven’t publicised it because I don’t want to get bogged down with queries before its finished.
I took a peek and certainly a comprehensive and worthwhile study Golden, and the Grand National trounces the Cheltenhan festival and the Epsom Derby ( a poor cousin moved to its boring Saturday slot) as the main shop window of the sport of horseracing.
I have had a bit of fun looking back at Rubio and the first decade of the last century when he pulled that omnibus and I find it hard to leave those winding dirt country lanes to be frank. The name Rubio probably comes from his father Star Ruby but the latin Rubeus means red. And I have read that many on the bus got attracted to the big red chestnut with its striking white blaze that pulled them hither and thither.
Connections reportedly won 12000 dollars on his win which I find rather hard to believe ( about six times an accountants annual salary in the U.S.) and take that with a pinch of salt. When he was retired from racing at the age of five he worked on a farm pulling a plough as well as his street job which he did possibly initially or for a separate period. His feet and legs got bad in 1903, before he retired and became a working horse, and that was the same year Vauxhall brought their first car to market + a one stroke five horsepower carriage with two gears ( no reverse but that came out the next year) and the front wheel or wheels were steered by a tiller, like in a boat. I think there were 10/12 mph speed limits but I doubt the car would have reached much more. Only 1 in 2000 people owned cars in 1908 and they were all hand built and expensive, until Henry Ford brought in mass production in the twenties. Half the cars in the world were Fords in the roaring decade. Rubio would have encountered few in the friendly petrol free Towcester streets. The state pension was born.
Life expectancy was 47 for a man with women a little more. In the U.S. women used to wash their hair once a month with borax or egg whites and people could readily purchase Heroin in the drugstore which was encouraged for health. Only 10% had inside toilets and fewer still dialled M for murder
Looking back at the decades..
1900-1910 – birth of motor car and watch out countryside.
1910-1920 – Time of the Great War. Sacrifice, bravery, loss on a global scale.
The roaring Twentys – Engineering and arts went into overdrive with a great release of post war energy.
The restless 30’s well Filmstars Jean Harlow say no more and Cary Grant the very first James Bond – The Great Depression unemployment 70 % in places but Betty Boop !
40’s – The big War, great loss of young men but for those who stayed behind – the fresh faced land girls who would sell their soul for a pair of nylons or an American. Still a largely unspoiled countryside and a comaraderie in Bletchley Park which pushed out from hut six and spread to all four corners of this mighty land.
50’s – Baby Boomers – everything was booming with a new found raw energy after the war and then Rock n roll around the clock.
The swinging sixties. If you were in the right place with a pair of wheels you were in. The rover 90 was the best containing pick up wagon back then with its rear straps. The Beatles, Stones, Hitchcock all scared various people to death. She loves ya YEAH YEAH YEAH ! Mods ruled ! Bond sells us abroad.
The silly seventies – flowers in your hair and the winter of discontent. Nixon and the Beatles both broke up and the punks challenged everything they could shout at including Big society, even before it came of age, and Americans could suddenly no longer smell that Napalm in the morning !
The Thatcher years – everyone was meant to prosper and it was a free for all in the city with bank boom deregulation. The citi rats and Metro man loved it.
The nicely done nineties created further boom of technology music and arts and children were meant to be happy with the video star killing radio. Trouble in Iraq was superseded by Cool Brittania booted in by the salesman of the Century.
The Noughties – 9/11 – Silicon Valley exploded. Too much choice as the internet started connecting and deceiving people. Grab what you can – greed is good but you have to queue up
2010-2200
Big Corporations take over the world and little village stores are replaced by warehouses as cheap as chips. Hug a hoodie it’s what you gotta do. Don’t grumble ever its the information age and big data is your new controlling friend and mobile phones start following people. Cameron’s risky gamble goes wrong and we’re bowled out of Europe.Since the millenium time has speeded up ever so much, with complicated lives and too much choice – Stephen Hawking would agree and I want my money back.
I wrote all this on a park bench in beautiful sunshine, and I am in shorts. I am heading home now for my dinner.
Deviation Marlingford
Thanks for your kind words Gamble. My favourite decade is/was the 70s – until Punk and Thatcher came along!
I will definitely be taking a visit to your site Golden Miller, looking forward to it.
My goodness Gamble, I never imagined the tale of Rubio would end up taking us on that journey through the decades, but an interesting deviation it certainly was. Glad to hear you were out enjoying the sunshine.
Well, the Mastermind questions seem to have become so long-winded each is akin to a chapter! Generally they were easy and the only one I would’ve passed on was the runner-up’s jockey in 1938 which in the general context of the posers was rather obscure.
Agree Golden Miller. Has Mastermind got easier?! Was expecting rather more obscure questions than those, and for there to be scarcely anything from post-World War II.
Not sure if you bothered with the rest of the episode, but the guy who won it was a machine! Very impressive knowledge.
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