Grand National lease in 1848. One century later, the Topham family bought the course outright. Later in the century the race was the setting of a thriller by the popular novelist Henry Hawley Smart. For three years during the First World War, while Aintree Racecourse was taken over by the War Office, an alternative race was run at Gatwick Racecourse, a disused course on land now occupied by Gatwick Airport. The first of these races, in 1916, was called the Racecourse Association Steeplechase, and in 1917 and 1918 the race was called the War National Steeplechase. The races at Gatwick are not
Iroquois Steeplechase Iroquois Steeplechase The Iroquois Steeplechase (also known as the Iroquois Hurdle Stakes) is an American Grade I NSA sanctioned steeplechase race run each spring at Percy Warner Park in Nashville, Tennessee. The race dates back to 1941, and has been held annually, except in 1945, due to World War II. The Iroquois itself is the culmination of a card of races which usually includes five to seven preliminary races, both flat races and steeplechases. The race is named for Iroquois, the first American-bred Thoroughbred to win the prestigious British Epsom Derby. Several winners of the race have been named American