Whoever wins will scoop £500,000 for their horse’s owner, along with the 40cm-high, 6kg sterling silver trophy, made by British jeweller Boodles. The house, which was founded in Liverpool in 1798, has a history of decorating Grand National winners: it first created a solid gold cup for the 1937 race, and supplied trophies for Aintree races throughout the 1950s and ’60s.
In the house’s archive is a letter dated 18 March 1950 from Anthony Wainwright, then chairman of Boodles, to Mrs Mirabel Topham, owner of Aintree Racecourse, enclosing a photograph of that year’s Grand National gold cup. ‘I think you will agree it is a fine picture of a really beautiful article,’ he writes, adding, ‘The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths think very highly of this trophy… whoever wins it will be approached for its exhibition at the 1951 Festival of Britain.’
That trophy was a traditional two-handled cup engraved with a scene from the race: far removed from this year’s creation, commissioned by the Grand National’s sponsor since 2017, Randox. The brief was to create something that entwines the world of horse racing with scientific elements to represent innovation, cutting-edge technology and human progress.
