2002 Grand National

The 2002 Grand National (officially known as the Martell Grand National for sponsorship reasons) was the 155th official renewal of the Grand National steeplechase that took place at Aintree Racecourse near Liverpool, England, on 6 April 2002.

The race was won by eight-year-old 20/1 shot Bindaree, ridden by Jim Culloty and trained by Nigel Twiston-Davies at Grange Hill Farm in Naunton, Gloucestershire, by a distance of 1¾ lengths from What's Up Boys (10/1) in a time of 10 minutes 3 seconds. The winner was bred by Noel King in County Down, Northern Ireland, and was owned by Raymond Mould.

The field was limited to a maximum of 40 runners, with 11 completing the course. Nine horses fell at the first fence. There were two equine fatalities during the second circuit of the race: Manx Magic at the 20th fence and The Last Fling at the second Canal Turn.

During the live television broadcast of the race on BBC One, watched by 8.6 million people, rival network station ITV1 suffered its lowest ever viewing figures with 300,000 people (a 3% market share) watching an ice hockey match at the same time. BBC Two broadcast a Six Nations rugby international, which retained 900,000 viewers at race time, while 800,000 viewers watched a film on Channel 4.

The long-time ante-post favourite was Moor Lane but his price began to drift as possibility grew that the horse was so far down the handicap that it would not make the cut of forty runners. The other long-time ante-post favourite was Welsh Grand National winner Supreme Glory but the horse was withdrawn a few weeks before the race.

Blowing Wind was sent off as the 8/1 favourite with champion jockey Tony McCoy in the saddle. The pair had been considered unfortunate in finishing a remounted third after being brought down in the previous year's National. The favourite gave his backers a good run for their money and shared the lead with Bindaree until three fences from the finish when he was outpaced to come home in third place.

Ad Hoc was noticed as a good Spring horse when winning the Whitbread Gold Cup the previous April and was ridden by 1999 winning jockey Paul Carberry. Despite several jumping errors, the 10/1 joint-second favourite was lying a close fifth when brought down three fences from home by the falling David's Lad leaving many to regard him as the hard luck story of the race.

David's Lad was a former winner of the Irish Grand National and was well supported to joint-second favourite on the back of the recent successes of Irish National winners and was ridden by Timmy Murphy. The pair moved into the leading contingent early on the second circuit and was still going well in fourth place when falling at the third-last fence.