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In 1993 the jockeys were entirely to blame for the fiasco.
Why? What were the starters doing? Having a cup of tea?
It is partly the fault of jockeys, partly the starter. As Mick Fitzgerald commented yesterday, the starter can not expect jockeys to take any notice of what he says if he shouts "No, no, no, get back"!… and immediately lets them go. Of course the next time the jockey thinks he can not take any notice of what the starter says. "No, no no" could mean the same as "maybe, maybe, maybe"! Or "yes, yes yes"! (If you pardon the expression).
Jockeys need to respect the starter and the starter needs to respect the jockeys.
Value Is EverythingThere’s a simple way to avoid the issues at the start – and one that the BHA bottled this year.
IIRC a number of riders were banned after the Foxhunters for failing to obey the starter. By the BHA’s own admission the same thing happened in the National itself, though with so many doing it they opted to send letters out.
The sooner the BHA learn that the only thing that jockeys know is bans and loss of earnings the better – this is the only thing that will work with regards to the start.
In 1993 the tape mechanism was different – it went vertically up and one jockey (Judy Davies on Formula One I believe) had their horses head over the tape, subsequently the tape was slow to go up, the jockeys and horses jumped off and the tape ended up wrapped around Richard Dunwoody’s neck. The subsequent failure to be able to stop the race (partly due to jockeys mistaking officials for protestors) just added to the fun and games that afternoon.
Martin
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: wait till the next slaughter – and there will be one – and abolish the race. That will buy racing quite a lot of time because the general public and animal rights nutters will lose their yearly reminder that the Turf exists.
I personally liked Joe’s (Steeplechasing) idea of lengthening the race so as they run round the bend prior to the first.
Think of the long run to the first in the Welsh National. How about starting at the elbow, run past the Chair & the Water, cruise round the bend and then on to the first.
This increases the race to approx 4m 5 1/2furlong, therefore surely the extra distance should make jockeys think about what speed they go to conserve energy.
By using the Mildmay hurdles course in the same way that it is for the bumper, the run up to the first could be extended indefinitely; the Anchor Bridge area, or even the existing start area with a complete circuit run on the flat, would be possibilities. The start point could even be made to vary dependent on the ground, making for a shorter race on heavy ground (5m6f-ish around Aintree on conditions resembling 2001 is not a good idea). Such a solution might have implications for field size, but that would be no bad thing.
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