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And it’s interesting how large parts of msm portray or give exposure and coverage to these people.
Protest peacefully in a town where 200 unidentified illegal foreign males are dumped on your doorstep and you are labelled by the BBC as hard or far right.
But climb and wreck fencing, evade police capture and glue parts of your anatomy to fences to disrupt, and you are not labelled anything.
“Proving that there are dreadful opinions on both sides”
My castration comment wasn’t supposed to be taken seriously. Next time I’ll use emojis or something, to convey that it’s a joke.
“Protesting is their life, their reason to exist, they have nothing else to do.”
I agree but it prompts the question: who is funding these groups? Not just the animal rights crowd but all these political protestors.
They ought to be subjected to far more scrutiny about their funding, aims and objectives. I believe if more people understood the future this crowd have in store for us if they ever gained power would see any support they have collapse very quickly.
I saw a clip of Richard Hoiles talking on LBC yesterday. He said a lot of the protestors seriously want to see all farmland rewilded and the former racehorses just allowed to run around wild and free.
Where do these idiots think the horses will get their food from? Or get the structured programme of exercise they require if they are put into overgrown fields and without any care? Absolute la-la land stuff which anyone who understands horses and racing should easily demolish.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they fund themselves CAS. They don’t have to work, probably have never done a day’s work in their lives.
For the amount of disruption they cause in the various guises they live in, they do need scrutiny, put on a list as disruptors who take things too far.
It’s both hijacking and obstruction.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if they fund themselves.”
Not entirely. Some multimillionaire hedge fund manager has been a huge contributor to Extinction Rebellion.
And one of the Getty family has donated money to Just Stop Oil. Which is somewhat ironic!
The Forest Green Rovers owner had some financial backing toward the just stop oil group.
Gaelic Warrior Gold Cup Winner 2026
Greg Wood’s take in “The Guardian”.
I think he is a little naive to express surprise about the RSPCA’s language. It was a responsible animal welfare organisation in the past but was infiltrated by militant animal rights campaigners long ago.
Overall I think he is being too pessimistic. The crowds and the once a year punters will be back next year.
Willie Mullins said that Recite A Prayer was injured by getting loose on the inside through the barrier and says Aintree needs to look at that. There have already been comments on this forum about a possible escape lane for loose horses on the inside so hopefully that will be a positive change next year. Recite A Prayer had surgery on an eye socket and is fine in case anyone hasn’t heard by now.
I like Toyah!
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I crawled on six crooked highwaysPeople LIKE Toyah, sir?
“It’s A Mystery” to me!
Anyway, fast forward to 2043 and –
Aintree
5.15 Grand National Handicap (Class 1) 2m 2f
-40 declared-It’s the race that stops the nation, the Cesarewitch in spring, the first leg of the great Spring and Autumn Stayers’ Double (and a right pain in the backside for the Chester Cup).
NostraChezzamus told you first!
(Don’t ask about 2063 as the race distance has been reduced to 5f by then with a safety factor of eight).
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Btw, thanks for the link to Greg Wood.
I often think I must be a right cantankerous old git to think just about every item of racing journalism is puerile nowadays, but then Greg Wood reminds me of what intelligent, challenging, racing journalism means.
Kevin Blake, Lydia Hislop, Lee Mottershead, even Chris Cook – none of them is within 20 lengths of Wood even on a good day.
Naive or not, surprising or not, the RSPCA stance has to be a concern.
I think Wood has called it spot on.
I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"This issue is bigger than The Grand National, they planning to disrupt the Derby next.
You've got to accentuate the positive.
Eliminate the negative.
Latch on to the affirmative.
Don't mess with mister in between.For me the biggest problem racing has is that the BHA will continuously not stand up for the sport (particularly the NH side) against the uneducated moral minority (or ‘public perception’ as they refer to them) that shout the loudest and draw the most attention.
They take more notice of them and try to bend over backwards to appease them when seemingly everyone else knows that the end goal of those people is for a total ban on horses racing altogether. The more the BHA tinker with the race the more they turn it into just another long distance staying chase albeit with different looking fences.
You look at old renewals of the race and you note that they do not go as fast into them, simply because the fences were big imposing obstacles that demanded respect – I fully understood the need to change the guts of the fences to make them less solid but they are noticeable smaller in height and as a result can be jumped at a faster speed and therefore gives a smaller margin for error that will cause a bigger issue when you have 40 horses.
The history of the race always had a number of horses that were clearly non stayers taking part and yet because of how formidable the fences were it meant that runners mostly hunted round on the first circuit and then only started to think about riding a race when they started out on the second circuit, because of that many of those non stayers were able to not only complete but were also involved at the business end of the race too…..that happens less now because of the more stronger sustained pace from the start that ruthlessly exposes stamina limitations to the point that even some notable stayers are found out (Burrows Saint the 2019 Irish Grand National winner was in 2021 cruising upsides the winner Minella Times 2 out before finding nothing and eventually being beaten over 27L in 4th).
The race requirements that are in place that you need to satisfy in order to potentially weed out those so called horses the BHA deem unacceptable clearly didn’t relate to Hill Sixteen, who had never fallen in his career and had jumped safely around the course on two seperate runs….while he was not a realistic winner of the race, with all his experience jumping the course you also couldn’t envisage him getting no further than the first fence either….
However, the race does have a habit of having things that you would normally think wouldn’t be likely but do happen, 1981 winner Aldaniti also went on to fall at the very first in 1982 (fortunately with less fatal consequences), Aintree stalwart West Tip in his first try fell at Beechers when looking the likely winner in 1985 (the only time he failed to complete the course in 6 straight years – winning once, finishing 2nd and 4th twice before a 10th place finish on is last try) and what about 1994 winner Minnehoma who went back the following year and hated every single second of it and was tailed off before being pulled up.
Trying to put provisos in place to ensure that only the horses most likely to stay the trip and least likely to fall qualify for the race is a lesson in futility….the only way to mitigate any and all risk to the horse is for the race not to take place at all (which is the goal for those protesters) and that is not a place I want to end up at but believe me we are already an uncomfortably long way down that road already and there doesn’t appear to be much traffic up ahead to slow us down.
Apologies for the long rambling rant.
I couldn’t enjoy the race at the time as I spent the entire race waiting for someone to run across the horses, or for the commentator to mention some disruption further up the course.
I’ve watched the race back several times since, and I must confess as to not finding it such a difficult viewing experience as seems to be projected by journalists and enthusiasts. Perhaps that makes me a rather cold individual.
Has there been so much loose horse interruption to warrant a reconfiguration of the course? Other than Across The Bay getting carried wide 8 years ago; I can’t recall a great deal more happening since the fences were modified in 2013? They all seem to either gather the canal turn collection area or they head for the stables. Unless my memory fails me?
Good post LD73, following up your cracking one on the previous page. The evidence you laid out in that could be very useful. Yesterday I tweeted, tongue in cheek, that the connections of Hill Sixteen, aided by the Jockey Club, ought to sue Animal Rising for damages. The facts you published would give such an approach solidity.
I very much doubt it is a case that would be won, but in court there are no rushed interviews, no soundbites, no edited testimony; racing would have time to get across to the public its case in full. That’s when we have the chance to drive home much more widely the stats and facts that Kevin Blake touched in the last 48 hours (there are many more positive aspects of racing to show too). And to expose, the naive blundering of a bunch of kids, for that is all they are (and allowances should be made for that when judging).
“For me the biggest problem racing has is that the BHA will continuously not stand up for the sport.”
To be fair, I think the BHA has been more on the front foot and less defensive than it has been in previous years. A lesson learned, perhaps.
I also think the media coverage is not quite as bad as I initially feared. Maybe that is partly down to the fact there was “only” 1 fatality and not 3 – which was a real concern in the immediate aftermath of the race. 3 fatalities would have been a severe blow.
There is lots of talk about the start procedure but I am not sure what can be done, other than a standing start. Some people have suggested a shorter run to the first fence – but there is a much shorter run to the (different) first fence in the Topham and Foxhunters and there are often fallers.
Chester Williams speaking on the Nick Luck podcast suggested there should be a practice fence like in France but I doubt that would be practical or helpful.
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