A cursory glance at the record books reveals that the 1981 Grand National was won by the 10/1 second favourite, Aldaniti, owned by Nick Embiricos, trained by Josh Gifford and ridden by Bob Champion. However, the bare outcome does not tell the whole story, which led Brough Scott to write in the ‘Sunday Times’, “In what must be the most inspiring Grand National of all…”
By then an 11-year-old, Aldaniti had been placed in both the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Scottish Grand National as a nine-year-old before, not for the first time in his career, injury intervened. A fractured hock bone, sustained at Sandown in November 1979, led to him being confined to his box for six months and off the course for over a year.
Meanwhile, Champion, stable jockey to Gifford in Findon, West Sussex, had been diagnosed with testicular cancer, requiring surgery and an extensive course of chemotherapy. Against the odds and thanks, in no small part, to the loyal support of Josh Gifford, Champion recovered sufficiently to be reunited with Aldaniti in the Whitbread Trial Chase at Sandown in February 1981, which they won.
So on to Aintree on April 4, 1981, where Aldaniti was preceded in the Grand National market by 8/1 favourite Spartan Missile, famously ridden by 54-year-old John Thorne. Indeed, it was Spartan Missile who would eventually emerge as his main challenger but, having taken the lead on the first circuit, Aldaniti withheld what commentator Sir Peter O’Sullevan described as a “storming finish” by his main market rival to win by four lengths. The ‘fairytale’ ending was immortalised in the book ‘Champion’s Story’, written by Champion and Jonathan Powell, and its film adaptation ‘Champions’, which starred John Hurt as Champion, Edward Woodward as Gifford and Aldaniti as himself.
Aldaniti and Champion returned to Aintree for the 1982 Grand National, for which the 12-year-old started 12/1 joint-third favourite, behind the eventual winner, Grittar, and Royal Mail. Aldaniti fell at the very first fence and was subsequently retired, spending the rest of his life at the stud farm of his owner, Barkfold Manor in Kirdford, West Sussex, where he died of old age in March 1997.