Built on his growing reputation as the finest painter of horses since Stubbs, Munnings became hugely sought-after during the interwar period, completing commissions for many notable families, including the Royal Family, Rothschilds, Astors and Spencer-Churchills. This painting, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1938, was commissioned by Francis Bingham Mildmay, 1^st Baron Mildmay of Flete (1861-1947), to mark his son Anthony Bingham Mildmay’s (1909-1950) participation in the 1936 Grand National on Davy Jones.

In a dramatic race, 100-1 outsider Davy Jones led all the way from Fulke Walwyn on Reynoldstown, before Anthony slipped the reins jumping the penultimate fence to allow his horse to rebalance, only to find the buckle at the end of the reins had come undone, leaving him without any control. Davy Jones ran out at the last fence and a famous win was denied. Reynoldstown triumphed, becoming one of only six horses to retain the title, having won in 1935.

Aintree was a subject Munnings knew well - Saddling Up for the Grand National, 1919: Before the Snowstorm is a major work in the Yale Center for British Art, Connecticut. In the present painting Munnings cleverly recreates Anthony on Davy Jones in the paddock before the prestigious race, with his father (right) and trainer Harry Wightman (left) observing in the background. Munnings’ distinctive smooth handling and rich colour sensitively captures the elegant physique of Davy Jones and an overall sense of anticipation is created, as other runners prepare with a crowd gathered behind the railings.

Munnings fondly recalls the commission in his autobiography (A.J. Munnings, The Second Burst, Bungay, 1951, pp. 151-2):

Lord Mildmay wanted a picture of his son on the horse which just missed winning the Grand National through a buckle on the rein giving way two fences from the finish. The horse came here with its lad, and stayed a week. Anthony motored over from Sevenoaks, and sat in his colours; he was six foot four. Davy Jones, too, was tall - seventeen hands. Indeed so tall was the horse and so short the lad who came with him that when they went out exercising he climbed up the horse's near fore-leg. A mounting-block stood there, but the lad despised such an unprofessional way of getting up!

Francis Mildmay had previously commissioned Munnings to paint a large group scene of the family out riding on their estate. Lord and Lady Mildmay of Flete, with their children, Helen and Anthony, with a view towards Ermington in Devonshire was painted in 1923, fourteen years before the present painting, when Anthony was 14 and a boy at Eton. The painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy the following year and sold at Christie’s New York on 1^st December 1999 (lot 144) for $4,292,500.