What is the highest weight ever carried in the Grand National?

The Grand National may not be, as Clare Balding once put it, ‘the bloodletting madness that it was’, but nonetheless remains a unique, but fair, challenge for horse and rider. Significant, and often controversial, changes to the Grand National course, conditions, etc., aimed at promoting the safety of participants, have been criticised by some traditionalists, but the Grand National is, no doubt, a much higher-class affair than was once the case.

With the weights compressed in recent years, horses carrying 11 stones, or more, have fared better than had previosuly. Following a 22-year hiatus between Corbiere (1983) and Hedgehunter (2005), seven horses – Mon Mome (2009), Don’t Push It (2010), Ballabriggs (2011), Neptune Collonges (2012), Many Clouds (2015), Tiger Roll (2019) and I Am Maximus (2024) – in the last 18 runnings of the Grand National have all carried at least 11st 0lb to victory at Aintree.

As far as weights carried in the National are concerned, it is worth noting that the maximum weight to be carried was reduced to 12st 0lb in 1956, 11st 12lb in 2002 and 11st 10lb in 2009, before being increased back to 11st 12lb in 2023. In early times, Cloister (1893), Manifesto (1899), Jerry M (1912), Poethlyn (1919) all won the Grand National under 12st 7lb. Manifesto deserves another honourable mention, too, for humping 12st 13lb into third place on his return to Aintree in 1900. The highest weight ever carried in the Grand National, though, was the eye-watering 13st 4lb shouldered by the 1939 winner Lottery when he tried again in 1941; he failed to complete the course, pulling up on the second circuit.