Grand National unlucky losers: Devon Loch
Any list of unlucky losers in the Randox Grand National can only start in once place. Phil Turner remembers Devon Loch.
When it comes to Grand National hard luck stories, there really is only one place to start – namely Devon Loch’s never-to-be-forgotten bellyflop in 1956. Indeed, the incident is so famous that, even in 2022, the name Devon Loch is often the go-to metaphor used to describe baffling sporting incidents where defeat is grabbed from the jaws of victory. But what actually happened on that fateful day in 1956?
A field of just twenty-nine went to post for the 1956 Grand National, yet a reputed crowd of 350,000 still packed into Aintree, the presence of the Queen, the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret no doubt helping to swell that total. The Royal party was in attendance because the Queen Mother owned two runners in the big race itself, the Peter Cazalet-trained pair M’as Tu Vu and Devon Loch. The latter was the mount of Dick Francis (champion jockey in 1953/54) and sent off at 100/7 (joint-fourth in the betting) having enjoyed a successful season, winning twice before warming up for Aintree with an eye-catching third at the Cheltenham Festival.
Devon Loch took the course like a duck to water, making ground at virtually every fence and hit the front 5 out having made steady progress from halfway. The Bloodstock Breeders’ Review’s report on the race stated: “Devon Loch, E.S.B and Eagle Lodge were clear at the last which Devon Loch jumped fractionally ahead. Devon Loch increased his lead to half a dozen lengths and ‘hats were coming off and spectators turned round to look up to the box in the Queen, the Queen Mother, the excited Princess Margaret and the Princess Royal looked down on the closing stages. Fifty yards from home the unbelievable happened. Devon Loch, ears pricked and full of running, stopped dead in his tracks: forelegs splayed, hind legs dragged, he sunk to the ground and lay spreadeagled. His rider was shot on to the horse’s neck, fell back into the saddle and sank to the ground with him.”
Devon Loch got to his feet quickly, yet Francis sensed his partner was unsteady and dismounted immediately fearing that he’d suffered an injury – although the course vet reported the gelding to be none the worse, showing no lameness, merely minutes after his puzzling mishap. E.S.B swept past the stricken pair to win by ten lengths from Gentle Moya, with 1954 Royal Tan a further ten lengths away as he pipped the weakening Eagle Lodge for third.
“That’s racing, I suppose” was the Queen Mother’s philosophical reaction to those who commiserated with her, a group which included the winning connections, E.S.B’s owner Stella Carver and trainer Fred Rimell, who were invited to the royal box afterwards to be warmly congratulated.
Winning jockey Dave Dick was also summoned to the royal box, a move which rather backfired on all concerned. He had struggled to make the weight and, empty and dehydrated, had imbibed generously from the champagne-filled winner’s trophy in the post-race celebrations. When the Queen Mother asked him how he had felt when Devon Loch collapsed, he replied: “I was bloody delighted Ma’am!” – which prompted the nearby Lord Sefton to intervene and usher him away: “Right oh, Dick, that will be all, thank you very much.”
Exactly why Devon Loch suddenly sprawled is likely to remain a mystery. A sudden attack of cramp? Temporary paralysis caused by a blood clot in a hind leg? Was Devon Loch misled by a shadow across the track from the outline of the water jump on the other side of the rail and did he try to jump an obstacle that wasn’t there? These are among the more plausible theories, though some newspapers at the time ran a story that Russian agents – a high-ranking Soviet delegation (which included former premier Georgy Malenkov) were guests of Aintree owner Mirabel Topham at the 1956 National – had run a cable under the track and electrocuted Devon Loch to prevent a Royal win. Another crackpot theory of the day was that Devon Loch’s girth had been too tight and his back-end collapsed when a build-up of flatulence was finally released!
A dejected Francis, naturally, spent more time than most pondering what caused the incident. He vehemently rejected the most popular theory of a “ghost jump” and also poured cold water on suggestions that Devon Loch had suffered a heart attack. Instead, the jockey felt the unprecedented noise might have been to blame: “From the last fence onwards the cheers which greeted us were tremendous and growing louder with every yard we went. I’d never heard anything like it. When he pricked his ears, that sudden shock wave of sound hit him. I think the crescendo of cheering frightened him and his hind-quarters suddenly refused to act.”
The other leading players that day, though, felt that Devon Loch’s problems might have been physical. Rimell said: “I believe that Devon Loch suffered a spasm – I think he was like long-distance runners who suddenly do not know where they are. He was affected by lack of oxygen.” That view is backed up by the fact Devon Loch was in the process of breaking Golden Miller’s course record time, which had stood for twenty-two years, and Dave Dick’s testimony from the race itself: “When Devon Loch came alongside me at the second last, his tongue was hanging out and it was completely black; he looked to me as if he’d gone. I though he was exhausted.”
George Milburn, rider of runner-up Gentle Moya, concurred and cited an experience when riding against Devon Loch at Sandown the following season as further proof: “Devon Loch finished fourth and I finished seventh or eighth, but quite close up. We passed the winning post and were pulling up when he did exactly the same thing he’d done at Liverpool. Not as bad, but he went down and then got straight back upon his feet – I think it was muscular cramp, a muscular problem that overtook him when he was getting very tired.”
Devon Loch was retired shortly after that Sandown incident and spent out his days as a hack to multiple champion Flat trainer Sir Noel Murless. The Queen Mother had just two more runners in the Grand National, Laffy (faller in 1964) and The Rip (seventh in 1965), though she did enjoy success over the National fences when Inch Arran won the 1973 Topham Trophy – which was the final success as a trainer for Pete Cazalet prior to his death.
Francis, of course, went on to become an international best-selling author of racing-themed crime thrillers, selling over sixty million books. When asked in 2006 if he’d swap that stellar subsequent career (complete with its great wealth) for winning the 1956 Grand National, Francis remarked ruefully: “I’d take winning the National every time….”