To most of the folk in Stilton it won't mean a lot ... but it should.
It won't mean a lot because Stilton, has long forgotten that one of the most famous men connected with the Grand National was born here over a century ago.
His name was Jem Mason. His father was a Stilton horse jobber and up and down the narrow lanes and the Great North Road young Jem learned to ride horses.
When Jem was in his 'teens his family took to the road, although the horse jobbing work in Stilton must have been fairly good in those days. Young Jem rode off on an old cob, and after two days' travel found a job that was lead him to immortality in horse racing circles.
Jem found fame on a cold February day in 1839 when he rode the first-ever Grand National winner at Liverpool.
And when the thrill of the great race was over, Jem's mind may have slipped back to that day not so very long before, when he rode out of Stilton in search of work.

Jem got a job with a Mr. Tilbury, a famous horse dealer, and the Stilton boy became a rough rider for the stable. On the first day on the farm love, and a horse, crossed his path.
Next to the Tilbury stables was a farm owned by a man named Elmore, who had a pretty daughter. Handsome but ragged, Jem fell in love with her, and vowed that when he was a famous jockey, he would wed the girl.
But the same Mr. Elmore owned a horse, a brown, not very good-looking animal, that was narrow and short in the quarters; he had bought it for £120 at a Northern horse fair. He called the horse Lottery.
At first, the unlikeliest thing seemed that neither Jem nor Lottery would ever become famous. But Fate works slowly but surely.

Some time later the local parson, Lord Frederick Beauclerc, watched young Jem riding a horse. He was so impressed that he asked the young fellow to ride his horse, The Poet, a hard pulling, ungenerous animal, in a race.
Jem jumped at the chance, but at the first fence in the race, The Poet refused to jump. But he was coaxed by Jem to try again, and this time The Poet jumped and ran on to win the race!

After that Jem rode many winners. And the more winners he rode the more his appearance began to change. Slowly he cast off the ragged clothes that he had brought with him from Stilton... in less than 3 years he was the dandy of the racecourse.

Because of the publicity he promised a tailor, all his clothes were made free of charge in Savile Row. He even went so far as to have the legs of his riding boots made by Bartley of Oxford Street, and the feet by Wren of Knightsbridge!

By now Mason of Stilton was achieving the reputation of being one of the bravest and best jockeys of his time.
Lottery was growing up into a forceful The National animal. Jem, still courting Mr. Elmore's daughter, persuaded the farmer to try the horse over jumps. At the first attempt Lottery fell over a gate-but Jem continued to school the horse and soon he had the animal jumping with courage.
But at the same time there was a feud building up between jockey and horse, and whenever Mason came near, Lottery would throw back his ears, roll his eyes and make it plain that he hated Jem.
Eventually Lottery made his racecourse debut. And from then on Mason always had to fool the horse by putting a coat over his blue riding jacket. Then as soon as he was mounted, Mason slipped off the coat and was ready for the race.

At the beginning, Lottery was not the best-behaved of horses, and he earned the reputation of being a chancy jumper. There were times when he refused solidly to jump, and not even Jem could get him over a fence; there were other times when, out of pure "cussedness", Lottery fell, and there were other times when as at a meeting at Finchley he bolted and jumped across a lane.
And yet for all this, Mason had the horse trained so that his jumping ability at home was almost an art. Lottery could, during schooling, jump over a garden fence, tightly-packed chairs and tables, and even do tricks for visitors on the Elmore farm.
Came the Grand National  1839 the first of a great tradition. February 26. The thousands who gathered at Aintree, then a country cousin of Liverpool, were dressed in the height of fashion. The men wore curved brim tall hats, knee breeches and Hessian boots. The women wore long, full delicious dresses, huge fan-shaped bonnets and large shawls.
The weather was fine and spring-like, the going, except in the ploughed field that the horses crossed, was good. But the crowds had a long time to wait before the 17 horses and jockeys were ready to go to the post.
Eventually, when the roar of "They're off" tore the Aintree sky, the race was two hours late!

Jem Mason went on to win on the 5-1 Favourite - Lottery.

Harriet Howard (1823–1865) moved in with Mason when she was fifteen years old. Later she became the mistress of Napoleon III. Mason married twice: the first time in 1840 to Charlotte Mary Zoe Elmore, the daughter of the horse dealer John Elmore in whose blue colours and black cap Mason had won the National, but it ended in divorce. He died of throat cancer in 1866.