Plain Fence, Height: 4ft 7in, Width: 3ft 6in
After successfully navigating the first fence, you would have thought that the horses would be nicely into their running rhythm as the Grand National gets into its stride.
And the second fence, standing 4ft 7in high and 3ft 6in wide, is a ‘settler’ designed to act as a warm up for some of the more severe obstacles to come.
The second fence on the Aintree course was once known as ‘the Fan’, on account of a horse who refused to jump it not once, not twice but thrice. However, the obstacle was moved closer to the first in the 1900s, and so it lost that rather dubious name.
This plain fence, constructed from spruce, also acts as the eighteenth obstacle across the two circuits, and of course is the second to be overcome as the field begins the second lap of their journey.
The faller count at the artist formerly known as The Fan is typically very low, and in the 2022 Grand National the entire field made it safely over the fence on both their first and second circuits.
Indeed, you have to go back to 2016 to find the last time any of the horses fell or unseated their rider at the second fence – the fancied 11/1 shot Holywell and First Lieutenant being the victims to fall at one of the Grand National’s most straightforward of obstacles, while 16/1 shot Gallant Oscar unseated Mark Walsh on the second lap of the track.