History
The event was established in 1870, and the inaugural running was won by a horse called Sir Robert Peel. The race took place at its present venue, and the winner's prize money was 167 sovereigns. In the early part of its history it was often won by horses trained at the Curragh, and there were ten such winners by 1882. The Easter Monday fixture regularly attracted racegoers from Dublin, and it became known as the Dubs' Day Out. [1]
Several winners of the Irish Grand National have also won its English counterpart at Aintree, but none in the same year. The first to complete the double was Ascetic's Silver, the winner of the latter version in 1906. The feat has been achieved more recently by Rhyme 'n' Reason, Bobbyjo, Numbersixvalverde and I Am Maximus. The most successful horse in the event's history is Brown Lad, a three-time winner in the 1970s.
Since 1991, the distance of the race has been 3 miles and 5 furlongs; previously it had been 3 miles and 4 furlongs.
The Irish Grand National was sponsored by Irish Distillers under various titles for many years up to 2010. Ladbrokes sponsored the race from 2011 to 2013. In 2014, Boylesports took over as Irish Grand National sponsor and appointed the jockey Barry Geraghty as the first ever ambassador for the race, promoting the race through various channels, including social media. [2]
This page is based on this
Wikipedia article Text is available under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
