Amateur rider William McKinnon Macneill was born in 1891. He finished last of four finishers on his own horse Fool-Hardy in the 1911 Grand National after remounting, thus winning a private wager that he would complete the course.
The fact that only four of the 26 runners got round that year – three of them after remounting – was due to the suicidal pace at which the race was run rather than the severity of the fences or prevailing ground conditions. The one-eyed plodder Glenside, partnered by Jack Anthony, was the only horse to complete without mishap.
Prior to taking part in the Grand National, Mr Macneill had ridden Fool-Hardy to win the United Services Hunters’ Chase at Newbury on February 25, 1911. Just two weeks after their fourth-placed effort in the Grand National, they again came last of four finishers, this time without falling, in the Scottish Grand National. Eight horses took part in that race, four of whom fell, leaving the safe as houses Fool-Hardy and his owner-rider to make the frame in another of the year’s toughest steeplechases.
In February 1912, William and Fool-Hardy won a match race for the Past and Present Naval and Military Handicap Chase at Lingfield Park, his sole rival, the odds-on favourite Wand, ridden by Captain de Crespigny, having refused on the way round before negotiating the fence at the second attempt and duly completing the course. William then rode Fool-Hardy in that year’s Grand National but failed to finish.
They tried again in the 1913 Grand National but were among the fallers. William presumably suffered some kind of injury in the race because when Fool-Hardy turned out again the very next day in the Champion Chase over three miles of the Grand National course, Jack Anthony deputised in the saddle. It was the same result with Fool-Hardy falling for the second time in 24 hours.
Sadly, William Macneill was killed in action on October 12, 1914 in one of the early battles of the Great War. He was just 23 years old.