I Am Maximus joined an elite list of Grand National winners on Saturday by reclaiming the Aintree crown, becoming the first horse since Red Rum to win the race in non-consecutive years.
The 10-year-old powered to a two-and-a-half length victory after moving past Iroko and the tiring Jordans, who had held a three-length advantage over the last fence before fading late. The result marked I Am Maximus’s second Grand National win in three years. Twelve months earlier, he had finished runner-up behind a stable companion in the same race.
The victory also gave trainer Willie Mullins a remarkable third Grand National triumph in a row, making him the first trainer to achieve that feat since Vincent O’Brien in 1955. Mullins’s latest success was his fourth in the race overall and moved him into a share of the all-time record for Grand National-winning trainers, alongside George Dockeray, Fred Rimell and Ginger McCain.
Mullins’s first Grand National winner came with Hedgehunter in 2005, and his latest success further underlined the extraordinary consistency of his Aintree record. For horse and trainer alike, the race strengthened a reputation already built on repeated success at the highest level.
The comparison with Red Rum is inevitable. Red Rum remains the most celebrated Grand National horse in Aintree history, and he was the last to win the race in non-consecutive years. His third victory in 1977 came, as Peter O’Sullevan memorably put it in his commentary, “preceded only by loose horses”.
Saturday’s race once again showed how quickly the Grand National can change, with front-runners and challengers swapping positions in the closing stages. But when the decisive moment arrived, I Am Maximus found enough to pull clear and secure another famous win.
For Mullins, the result added another milestone to a career already defined by major-race success. For I Am Maximus, it confirmed his place among the most notable recent Grand National winners and placed him in rare company at Aintree.
In a contest known for drama and unpredictability, the champion delivered when it mattered most, regaining the title in a manner that echoed one of the race’s defining legends.
