The 1969 Grand National was the 123rd renewal of the

Grand National The Grand National is a National Hunt horse race held annually at Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool, England. First run in 1839, it is a handicap st ...

horse race that took place at Aintree Racecourse near

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

, England, on 29 March 1969. Twelve-year-old Highland Wedding, running in his third Grand National, was the winner by 12 lengths. He was ridden by jockey Eddie Harty Sr. for trainer

Toby Balding Gerald Barnard Balding Jr. OBE (23 September 1936 – 25 September 2014), known as Toby Balding, was a British racehorse trainer, one of the few to have won the "big three" British jump races—the Grand National, Cheltenham Gold Cup and ...

. The favourite was Red Alligator who fell at the 19th fence (open ditch).

Finishing order

Non-finishers

Media coverage

David Coleman David Robert Coleman OBE (26 April 1926 – 21 December 2013) was a British sports commentator and television presenter who worked for the BBC for 46 years. He covered eleven Summer Olympic Games from 1960 to 2000 and six FIFA World Cups from ...

presented Grand National Grandstand: this would be the first National televised in colour.

Peter O'Sullevan Sir Peter O'Sullevan (3 March 1918 – 29 July 2015) was an Irish-British horse racing commentator for the BBC, and a correspondent for the Press Association, the ''Daily Express'', and ''Today''. He was the BBC's leading horse racing comme ...

, Julian Wilson (first National commentary),

Michael O'Hehir Michael James Hehir (also known as Michael O'Hehir and ga, Mícheál Ó hEithir; 2 June 1920 – 24 November 1996) was an Irish hurling, football and horse racing commentator and journalist. Between 1938 and 1985 his enthusiasm and memor ...

and Michael Seth-Smith provided the commentary. This would be the final television commentary on the National for both O'Hehir and Seth-Smith; however, both would continue as Grand National commentators for BBC radio until the mid-1980s. O'Hehir wrongly called Highland Wedding a faller at the second

Becher's Brook Becher's Brook ( ) is a fence jumped during the Grand National, a National Hunt horse race held annually at Aintree Racecourse near Liverpool, England. It is jumped twice during the race, as the and fence, as well as on four other occasions ...

(fence 22), this mistake cruelly cutting short his televised National commentaries.

References

Sources

* *https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=s2EhAAAAIBAJ&sjid=bIcFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4177%2C5966920 {{Grand National 1969

Grand National The Grand National is a National Hunt horse race held annually at Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool, England. First run in 1839, it is a handicap st ...

20th century in Lancashire March 1969 sports events in the United Kingdom