Grand National first jump, suddenly veered across the leading group at the 23rd, causing them to either stop, refuse or unseat their riders. Racing journalist Lord Oaksey described the resulting pile-up by saying that Popham Down had "cut down the leaders like a row of thistles". Some horses even started running in the wrong direction, back the way they had come. Foinavon, whose owner had such little faith in him that he had travelled to Worcester that day instead, had been lagging some 100 yards behind the leading pack, giving his jockey, John Buckingham, time to steer his mount wide of the
Wayne Harris (Canadian jockey) United States and notably rode William H. Perry's U.S. Racing Hall of Fame filly Gamely to victory in the 1968 Vanity Handicap and the 1969 Santa Monica Handicap. Wayne Harris (Canadian jockey) Wayne Harris (born c. 1948) is a retired Canadian jockey in Thoroughbred horse racing who competed in Canada and the United States and who is best known for winning Canada's most prestigious race, the 1968 Queen's Plate. A top jockey at Woodbine Racetrack and Greenwood Raceway in Toronto, in 1967 Harris relocated to race at tracks in California. At age twenty, he returned to Woodine for the 1968