L’Escargot was a wonder horse, one of only two to have scaled the twin peaks of
steeplechasing: the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Grand National. He won on the biggest stages in
Britain and Ireland – and on one of the biggest in the USA. His victories spanned nine seasons. He
triumphed on the flat, over hurdles and over fences, and at distances from two miles to the National’s
gruelling four miles and 856 yards.
When he surged clear of Red Rum – the best Aintree horse ever – to claim victory in the National on
that strange, anti-climactic day in 1975, it was one of the most dramatic acts of party-pooping in the
history of sport. Yet, for those who had managed his destiny since 1966 from a base on the edge of The
Curragh, it meant the fulfilment of a decades-old ambition.