Grand National the run-in and, two strides from the finishing post, he pipped the tiring Crisp to win by three-quarters of a length in what is arguably the most memorable Grand National of all time. Red Rum finished in 9 minutes 1.9 seconds, taking 18.3 seconds off the previous record for the National which had been set in 1935 by Reynoldstown. His record was to stand for the next seventeen years. Two years before the 1981 Grand National, jockey Bob Champion had been diagnosed with testicular cancer and given only months to live by doctors. But by 1981 he had recovered and
Evan Williams (jockey) 16 July 2001, aged 89. Evan Williams (jockey) Evan Morgan Williams (9 May 1912 – 12 July 2001) was a horse racing jockey born in Cowbridge, Wales, in 1912. He won the 1937 Grand National on Royal Mail, and he won the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1936 (on Golden Miller) and 1940 (on Roman Hackle). Evan Williams' father, Fred, was an amateur jockey. After service in the armed forces during the Second World War, he became a trainer and won the first running of the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes in 1951 (with Supreme Court). He later relocated