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
1845 Grand National with the horse and after their victory they returned home the same way with the Healing church bells sounded in their honour upon their arrival. Loft was one of nine riders making their debut in the race while Tom Olliver was taking a record seventh ride in the race. Clansman's fatal fall at the Canal Turn was the second equine fatality in the history of the race and the first for six years. 1845 Grand National The 1845 Grand Liverpool Steeplechase was the seventh annual running of a Handicap Steeple-chase, later to become known as the Grand National Steeplechase, a