2001 Grand National 2001 Grand National The 2001 Grand National (known as the Martell Grand National for sponsorship reasons) was the 154th official running of the Grand National horse race that took place at Aintree Racecourse near Liverpool, England, on 7 April 2001. The steeplechase was won by a distance by 33/1 shot Red Marauder, ridden by jockey Richard Guest, in a time of over 11 minutes. The winner was also trained by his jockey and owned by Norman Mason, in whose name the training licence was held, with Guest as his assistant, though Guest did all the training at his base in
1993 Grand National never won the National in his previous 12 attempts, and retired from racing a short time later. Party Politics, who won the 1992 Grand National with partner Carl Llewellyn, was also pulled up after the water jump when in a good position. Since his Aintree victory the previous April he had run unimpressively in two chases without Llewellyn in the saddle before they were reunited to win the Greenhalls Gold Cup at Haydock in February. As defending champion, and with his jockey taking his fourth ride in a Grand National, the horse was popular with the public who had backed