McCarron, Pat

Jumping the first, he was stuck violently in the eye by a small stone and, in no little agony, rode semi-blind for nearly three miles.

Jumping the last, Rutherfords (Pat Buckley) had the advantage, and it says much for McCarron's resilience that, riding a sensational finish, he got Astrolin up on the line to win by a neck.

Pat McCarron is mostly remembered for his exploits on Freddie (named after the uncle of the breeder) and on which he tackled the Grand National fences in the notorious race of 1967. Foinavon was gifted the race, Freddie came seventeenth.

McCarron had come closer the previous year, finishing second to the outsider Anglo.

'Freddie was the bravest horse I ever sat on. Very intelligent. He was carrying 11 st 7 lb yet it wasn't until half-way that he was beaten.' said McCarron. 'I thought I was going to win but Tommy Smith on Jay Trump stopped riding through sheer tiredness and as soon as he did this, his horse started to run on again.'

One memorable victory McCarron and Freddie did enjoy together was their short head win over Vultrix in the 1965 Midmay Memorial Chase at Sandown.

McCarron's last assault on the National came in 1972: he fell at Becher's on Swanshot.

He was 34 when he decided to call it a day: he took over his father-in-law's haulage business before buying him out. He stayed in business for thirty years before finally retiring in 2006.