Grand National Trivia
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58 free Grand National trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Sep 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 58 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Aintree Racecourse, home of the Grand National, is in which English county?
Merseyside
Aintree lies in Merseyside, near Liverpool, and new rail links helped turn the 1839 race from a local chase into a national event.
Q 02Under what name was the Grand National first run in 1839?
Grand Liverpool Steeplechase
The Grand Liverpool Steeplechase of 1839 is the official first, though some historians argue three earlier Aintree races from 1836 should count.
Q 03Which aptly named horse won the first official Grand National in 1839?
Lottery
Lottery was so superior that later Nationals saddled him with heavy weight penalties, and he never won the race again.
Q 04Becher's Brook is named after a rider who did what there in the first Grand National?
Fell into the water
Captain Martin Becher fell into the water from Conrad and took shelter in the brook, then remounted and rode on.
Q 05Which jockey won the 2000 Grand National on Papillon, a horse trained by his father?
Ruby Walsh
Ruby Walsh, 20, was having his first ride in the race, on a horse punters had backed from 33-1 that morning to 10-1.
Q 06Which handicapper made the Grand National a handicap in 1843, his family later buying the course?
Edward Topham
Edward Topham's change stuck: the National has been a handicap ever since, so the best-rated horses carry the most weight.
Q 07Which proprietor of Liverpool's Waterloo Hotel founded the Grand National?
William Lynn
William Lynn first leased the Aintree land in 1829 to stage flat racing, and only later turned to steeplechasing.
Q 08During WWI, the Grand National's substitute 'War National' was run at which racecourse?
Gatwick
Gatwick Racecourse staged the wartime races while the War Office held Aintree, and its land now lies under Gatwick Airport.
Q 09Which horse won the 1928 Grand National at 100/1, when only two of 42 starters finished?
Tipperary Tim
Tipperary Tim's amateur rider, a Chester solicitor, was told he'd only win if all the others fell, and his was the only horse to get round without falling.
Q 10Which amateur won the 2022 Grand National on 50-1 shot Noble Yeats in his final ride?
Sam Waley-Cohen
Sam Waley-Cohen's farewell still earned him a nine-day ban and a £400 fine for his use of the whip in the finish.
Q 11Which man rode Grand National winners Sundew and Kilmore, then trained the winners Jay Trump and Anglo?
Fred Winter
Fred Winter was proved right that Anglo would improve over the National's marathon trip, and the horse's stamina carried him clear.
Q 12Which Irish trainer won three straight Grand Nationals from 1953 to 1955?
Vincent O'Brien
Vincent O'Brien then turned from jumps racing to the Flat, where he trained six Epsom Derby winners.
Q 13Which royal owned Devon Loch, who inexplicably collapsed on the 1956 run-in while five lengths clear?
The Queen Mother
The Queen Mother answered the winning owner's sympathy with 'Oh, that's racing!'
Q 21Where was Red Rum buried after his death in 1995?
By the winning post at Aintree
Red Rum was buried by the winning post at Aintree in 1995, and his death made the front pages of national newspapers.
Q 22Which famous showjumper's wife, Sue, trained 66-1 shot Auroras Encore to win the 2013 Grand National?
Harvey Smith
Harvey Smith was disqualified for a V-sign after winning the 1971 Hickstead Derby, then kept the win by showing photos of Churchill's V for Victory.
Q 23How did Red Rum get his name?
Last letters of his dam and sire
Q 14Which Devon Loch jockey later became a best-selling thriller writer?
Dick Francis
Dick Francis blamed the crowd's deafening cheers for Devon Loch's collapse, before leaving the saddle to write thrillers.
Q 15Which horse crossed the line first in 1956 after Devon Loch's collapse?
E.S.B.
E.S.B.'s jockey admitted he had given up hope of catching Devon Loch and was resigned to finishing second.
Q 16Which 100/1 outsider won the 1967 Grand National after a pile-up at the 23rd fence, now named after him?
Foinavon
Foinavon was so far behind that he could be steered round the mêlée, and neither his owner nor his trainer was at Aintree to see it.
Q 17Which riderless horse caused the 1967 Grand National pile-up by veering across the leaders?
Popham Down
Popham Down had lost his rider when hampered by a faller at the first fence, and he was still running loose at the 23rd.
Q 18Who rode the 100/1 winner of the 1967 Grand National, steering wide of the pile-up?
John Buckingham
John Buckingham was riding in the race for the first time, and none of the rivals who remounted after the pile-up could catch him.
Q 19In the 1973 Grand National, which champion, giving 23 lb, was caught by Red Rum two strides out?
Crisp
Crisp was a champion over two miles, and his stamina gave out on the run-in of a race more than twice that distance.
Q 20Red Rum was famously trained on the beach at which seaside town?
Southport
Galloping on the Southport sands and in the sea may have eased the bone disease in Red Rum's feet that threatened his career.
Red Rum's name joins the last letters of his dam and sire, Mared and Quorum, and the future National hero began as a five-furlong sprinter.
Q 24Cancer survivor Bob Champion won the 1981 Grand National on which horse, itself recovered from leg problems?
Aldaniti
After Aldaniti's win, Champion set up the Bob Champion Cancer Trust, which has raised millions of pounds for cancer research.
Q 25Which actor played jockey Bob Champion in the film Champions?
John Hurt
John Hurt took the lead role, while the horse Champion had won on in 1981 played himself.
Q 26Which horse was first past the post in the void 1993 Grand National, 'the race that never was'?
Esha Ness
Esha Ness, a 50-1 shot, ran the second-fastest time in the race's history, but it counted for nothing: 30 of 39 riders had missed the false start.
Q 27Which commentator called the 1993 fiasco 'the greatest disaster in the history of the Grand National'?
Peter O'Sullevan
Peter O'Sullevan called 50 Nationals before retiring in 1997, then set up a foundation that raised millions for racing and animal charities.
Q 28Why was the 1997 Grand National postponed and run on the Monday?
IRA bomb threats
IRA bomb threats forced 60,000 people out, and locals who took in stranded racegoers inspired headlines like 'We'll fight them on the Becher's'.
Q 29Which New Zealand-bred horse won the Monday National of 1997?
Lord Gyllene
Lord Gyllene won in front of 20,000 people who came back to Aintree when the race was finally run, 49 hours late.
Q 30Which 100/1 outsider won by 12 lengths in 2009, giving Venetia Williams her first National?
Mon Mome
Mon Mome, on jockey Liam Treadwell's first ride in the race, went on to finish third in the next year's Cheltenham Gold Cup.