Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
Beat the crowd
10 questions No timer
60 free Grand National trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Grand National trivia quiz covers the world's most famous steeplechase from the first official running in 1839 to the shortened 34-runner fields of today. The easy questions ask how many fences are jumped, how many times Red Rum won, which channel now broadcasts the race, the film that had Elizabeth Taylor dreaming of Aintree, and why the 1997 race was run on a Monday. Then it works through the legends: Captain Becher in the brook, Tipperary Tim's two-finisher race, Devon Loch's belly-flop, Foinavon's 100/1 pile-up, Bob Champion and Aldaniti, and Esha Ness winning the race that never was. The hard end is for the Aintree obsessive: the Waterloo Hotel proprietor who founded the race, the wartime Nationals at Gatwick, the Home Secretary who moved it to Saturday, the five-time winning jockey, the 15-year-old winner, the first Austrian, Welsh-trained and Scottish-trained winners, the only human fatality, and the owners who ranged from Edward VII to Freddie Starr. Every answer was checked against the encyclopaedia entries on the Grand National, Red Rum, Tiger Roll and the individual races before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. Our horse racing and Cheltenham quizzes are natural next stops.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Aintree Racecourse, home of the Grand National, is in which English county?
Merseyside
The course sits just outside Liverpool, and rail links from London and Birmingham in 1839 helped turn a local chase into a national event.
Q 02Under what name was the race first run in 1839?
Grand Liverpool Steeplechase
Some historians argue the true first running was in 1836, won by The Duke, but efforts to restore those races to the record books have failed.
Q 03How many fences do the horses jump in the Grand National?
30
There are 16 fences on the course; 14 are jumped twice, while The Chair and the Water Jump are only taken on the first lap.
Q 04Which aptly named horse won the first official Grand National in 1839?
Lottery
His 14 minutes 53 seconds remains the slowest winning time in the race's history.
Q 05Becher's Brook takes its name from a rider who did what at the fence in the first Grand National?
Fell into the water
Captain Martin Becher sheltered in the water while the rest of the field thundered over him.
Q 06After his ducking, Captain Becher reportedly said water tastes disgusting without the benefits of what?
Whisky
The landing side of Becher's is 6 to 10 inches lower than the take-off, and jockeys sit back to counter the drop.
Q 07Which handicapper made the Grand National a handicap in 1843, his family later buying the course?
Edward Topham
The race had been a weight-for-age contest for its first four years.
Q 08The Grand National was founded by the proprietor of Liverpool's Waterloo Hotel. Who was he?
William Lynn
He leased the land from the 2nd Earl of Sefton, who laid the grandstand's foundation stone in February 1829.
Q 09In WWI, a substitute 'War National Steeplechase' was run at which now-vanished racecourse?
Gatwick
The site is now under Gatwick Airport, and the wartime results are often left out of winners' lists.
Q 10When 100/1 shot Tipperary Tim won in 1928, how many horses completed the course, a record low?
2
His jockey had been told before the race, 'Billy boy, you'll only win if all the others fall down' — and 41 of 42 did.
Q 11The largest ever Grand National field ran in 1929. How many horses started?
66
The smallest field was just 10 runners in 1883, and from 2024 the maximum has been cut to 34.
Q 12Which Home Secretary urged moving the Grand National to a Saturday from 1947 so workers could attend?
James Chuter Ede
The 1946 race had been run on a Friday after five wartime years with no National at all.
Q 13Which Irish trainer won three straight Grand Nationals from 1953 to 1955?
Vincent O'Brien
He later switched to the flat and became one of the greatest trainers of all time.
Q 21Which champion horse, carrying 23 lb more, was caught by Red Rum two strides from the post in 1973?
Crisp
Red Rum's 9 minutes 1.9 seconds knocked 18.3 seconds off a record that had stood since 1935.
Q 22Red Rum was famously trained on the beach at which seaside town?
Southport
Galloping in sea-water was used to treat his pedal osteitis, a bone disorder his trainer had seen cured in lame carthorses the same way.
Q 23Where was Red Rum buried after his death in 1995?
By the winning post at Aintree
His death led television news bulletins and made the next day's front pages.
Q 14Which royal owned Devon Loch, who inexplicably collapsed on the 1956 run-in while five lengths clear?
The Queen Mother
Her reaction to the owner of the winner was a shrug: 'Oh, that's racing!'
Q 15Devon Loch's jockey in 1956 later became a best-selling thriller writer. Who was he?
Dick Francis
He rode in eight Grand Nationals and never won one, though he led over the last fence that day.
Q 16Which horse crossed the line first in 1956 after Devon Loch's collapse?
E.S.B.
He missed the fastest-ever finishing time by four-fifths of a second.
Q 17Foinavon's 100/1 win in 1967 came after a mêlée at which fence, later named after him?
The 23rd
His owner had so little faith in him that he went to Worcester races that day instead.
Q 18Which riderless horse veered across the leaders in 1967 and caused the pile-up?
Popham Down
He had unseated his rider at the very first fence and ran loose for the rest of the race.
Q 19Who was the jockey who steered Foinavon wide of the 1967 pile-up to win?
John Buckingham
Seventeen jockeys remounted, but none could catch him before the line.
Q 20How many times did Red Rum win the Grand National?
3
He won in 1973, 1974 and 1977 and finished second in the two years between — no other horse has won more than twice.
Q 24Red Rum was bred at the Rossenarra stud in which Irish county?
Kilkenny
He was bred to win one-mile races but ended up winning over four and a half miles.
Q 25How did Red Rum get his name?
Last letters of his dam and sire
His dam was Mared and his sire Quorum, and breeder Martyn McEnery simply spliced their endings.
Q 26Cancer survivor Bob Champion won the 1981 Grand National on which horse, itself recovered from leg problems?
Aldaniti
They beat Spartan Missile, ridden by 54-year-old grandfather John Thorne, by four lengths.
Q 27Which actor played Bob Champion in the 1983 film Champions?
John Hurt
The film came out within two years of the win that made horse and jockey instant celebrities.
Q 28Which horse was first past the post in the void 1993 Grand National, 'the race that never was'?
Esha Ness
He clocked the second-fastest time ever, but only seven horses finished after 30 of 39 jockeys missed the false-start signal.
Q 29Which commentator called the 1993 fiasco 'the greatest disaster in the history of the Grand National'?
Peter O'Sullevan
He called home the winners of fifty Grand Nationals between 1947 and 1997.
Q 30Why was the 1997 Grand National postponed and run on the Monday?
IRA bomb threats
Some 60,000 spectators were evacuated and locals took in the stranded, prompting the headline 'We'll fight them on the Becher's'.