Begining of Historic Grand National Steeplechase

On February twenty sixth, eighteen thirty six, the very first National Grand Steeplechase was held, which has become the largest race in the world. Here's the story behind this iconic race today on Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide to a rapid deep dive into sports history every day. Now. You may not know the National Grand Steeplechase if you're in America, but you've probably seen pictures of it. A steeplechase, a horse race where the horses actually jump over gates and water during the race. It's a unique race, indifferent from what we were used to in the Kentucky Derby and races like that. And the Grand National is known for its shrubbery that they jump over. It looks like they're jumping over a hedge followed by a pool of water. You may have seen pictures of this or even seen it in movies. Just to give you a scale of the Grand National race, it is said that last year about fifteen million people watched the Kentucky Derby, compared that to the broadcast for the Grand National, where it had roughly six hundred million people watching. It's a scale that we don't really know about here in America, in a race we may not know much about either. But here's how this great race started and kind of helped lead the way to popularizing racing even here in America. It all started in eighteen twenty nine when William Lynne, the owner of the Waterloo Hotel in Liverpool, England, lease some land in the area of Antry, which was about seven miles north of Liverpool, and it was of flat land and he had the idea to make this into a sporting area. And at the time hair racing was very common and it was known as the Waterloo Cup, and he built a grandstand where people could watch these races going on. In July seventh, eighteen twenty nine, the very first flat race was held at the Entree Race. The race was the Cock's Thread Stakes, which was ran over a mile and a quarter and won by the horse named Mufti and had tremendous success to the very first race, having almost forty thousand people flocked to witness the sport. But not too far away was a rival racetrack, the Mackhole, which two years earlier the owner John Formby and introduced racing over his land, but his land was marshy. It would often be wet and make it very difficult to race on, and even the racing committee told him that he needed to improve the racecourse to continue holding races there or they would move their races over to the An Tree Racetrack. By eighteen thirty five, they officially ended racing at the McGall and moved it all to the Ann Tree Race Track. And around that time William Lynn of Entree first had the idea to stay at a steeplechase after seeing its success near London. The race that was popular in London was the Great Saint Albin Steeplechase, which was first introduced in eighteen thirty four and help raise the popularity of the hotel there. So hoping you would raise his hotel's popularity, he wanted to do the same, and he was greatly influenced by this racism, and before they could hold their first race, he wanted to add even more stance to accommodate all the people that could actually come. The more people that came, the more people that would stay at a hotel and it'd be a success all around. Then it came to that faithful first beginning now. The race would go on to happen in nineteen thirty six, being about four miles long with about thirty fences over two laps for them to jump over, and the very first one was won by the horse called the Duke and became the very first Grand National champion. Now, I will tell you these dates are actually very up in the air, as they didn't start to keep track of who won these races until thirty years later in the eighteen sixties, which makes it very hard to remember when things actually happened because they didn't have things written down yet and to go by memory is very difficult. But that didn't stop it in growing its popularity. Held every year, the Grand National has grown beyond belief. We already went over how many people view it every year, and it dwarfs the Kentucky Derby like quite a bit. Sepel Chasing isn't something very common in America, but it is overseas, especially in Europe, and it has now iconic shrubs that they jump over that was started back in the day and has continued the tradition every year. Thank you for joining us today on Daily Sportistory. Follow wherever you're listening. That way, you don't miss a show whenever it's released, and if here's a hint, it comes out every day. So come back tomorrow for more Daily Sportistory