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Yes, I’d prefer the ‘old Becher’s’. However, mentioning fatalities may be your kick, it certainly isn’t mine.
“The race isn’t a test of jumping or stamina any more.”
The jumping part of it rings true but stamina? Well, it’s still a race over 4 miles plus
.I enjoyed it despite not backing the winner or even a placed horse.
To survive it’s had little choice these last few years to continue to adapt. It has so much publicity every year, tons more than the more classy (in purist racing terms) Cheltenham Gold Cup.
I’m afraid it’s the way of the world, folks. All eyes are on racing every minute of every day, news spreads superfast these days.
Adapt or the sport will fade away.The Irish/British thing doesnt bother me one iota. If British trainers and racing wants to ‘catch up’ then step out of the traditional national hunt ‘family’; it’s still steeped in the countryside and its sleepy closed-network environ.
The 4 oclock start was better; that wait til 5.15 the last few years didnt work.
Maybe next year i’ll pick the winner
“To survive it’s had little choice these last few years to continue to adapt.”
This hits the nail squarely on the head.
Would the purists rather have a public-pleasing Grand National or no Grand National at all?
8.5 out of 10 from me. I enjoyed Saturday’s race more than I was expecting to.
The race has undeniably lost some of its character. It is not the arduous test that it used to be, and the opportunity for heroic tales and fantastical outcomes is much reduced.
But I do think it is a case of the race evolving or dying, and I much prefer the former. Some of the romance and magic has gone for good, but the flame is still burning at least.
I’d rather have no Grand National at all. I’d rename it. Let the damned thing limp on under the present name until 2027, the 50th anniversary of Rummy’s third win, then have it rebranded as ‘The (insert dismal bookmaking firm here) Great Merseyside Handicap Chase’, unless of course Randox wants to continue its association. ITV, assuming it too wishes to remain involved, could then gush about ‘evolving’, while the old Grand National would then have passed into history with at least a vestige of dignity intact. As a bonus, the name change might be a challenge to the antis…no Grand National to protest against!
If the future of the National involves a few dozen horses kicking lumps of “heather” off moderate fences in a few square miles of North Liverpool it hasn’t one. 5/10
By the way, I am a traditionalist. I call the Mackeson the Mackeson, the Hennessy the Hennessy, the Massey Ferguson the Massey Ferguson and the Whitbread the Whitbread.
But thinking that National Hunt racing would survive if the Grand National went back to being more of a jumping test is naive at best.
Those once a year Saturday morning feelings – anticipation, expectation, nervousnous, followed in the afternoon by intoxication and exhilaration. The subsequent observational analysis was obligatory and the minor bout of depression on Sunday inevitable.
Sadly gone forever.
RIP Grand National, it was a pleasure to have known you.
....and you've got to look a long way back for anything else.
It is even more naive, at best, to expect the latest wave of changes to the National to be the last. I would not be at all surprised to see The Chair further tampered with (all those unseatings!), then the open ditches, then The Canal Turn. Rinse and repeat. As for the continuing existence of NH racing, if its guardians persist in taking the knee in the face of opposition, it doesn’t deserve to survive.
Esp, I thought it was just me who went through the ‘minor bout of depression’ on the Sunday! Lovely post.
“Those once a year Saturday morning feelings – anticipation, expectation, nervousnous, followed in the afternoon by intoxication and exhilaration.”
Sorry, my friend, but it’s up to you to decide how much any particular event resonates in your psyche.
It’s not the BBC’s job.
And this is coming from someone who has followed your YouTube stuff for years.
I know that the race is still over 4 miles Stilvi but the fact that most of the field were still in a bunch turning in shows that they didn’t go any great pace.
Kittys Light didn’t fade away from the last through lack of stamina he was outpaced. It was a Sprint finish.
I would rather see the race run at a proper pace from the start. This race built its reputation on being the ultimate test of national hunt horses, both their jumping and stamina.
And I don’t want Bechers to go back to it’s late 80s form but the fence is no test of a horse at all now.
Whether you like it or not, the National you know and love is gone and isn’t coming back.
As some rightly acknowledge, that is simply the world we live in (for better or for worse).
If it’s ‘just another race, then don’t watch. There are thousands of others to choose from each year.
It remains one of the few races that still attracts the eyes and cash of those who don’t follow the sport at other times. The BBC, which is far from the friend to racing it once was, still gives it extensive coverage and has been largely positive about it.
The antis will of course continue their campaign against the race but that group of people in the middle I mentioned will look at the changes, see that they are working from a welfare perspective and decide that continued calls to ban it are probably unjustified. If the authorities had stood still then perhaps more people might think the antis had a point.
I agree with Stilvi’s post. Sums up exactly what I was thinking.
It’s The Bland National as far as I’m concerned.
“All eyes are on racing every minute of every day, news spreads superfast these days.”
It is more accurate to say all eyes are on Cheltenham and Aintree, especially the Grand National (In Name Only).
A horse had to be put down after a heavy fall at Chepstow on Saturday. As far as I am aware, it was not on the front page of any newspapers or mentioned on the BBC’s website. I did not hear the animal rights crowd shouting about it. Nor did I hear any demands for Chepstow to review its course and make changes.
I have watched the race and shared Esp’s excitement and anticipation for 50 years, so I’ll be ignoring suggestions of ‘don’t watch’. Maybe that advice should have been delivered more robustly to the race’s opponents over the previous few decades?
34 (?) runners crossing Melling Road will never cease being a spectacle and finding the winner will continue to divert for a few days but the old National has, indeed, gone for ever. The current incarnation has all the drama of the Pertemps Hurdle Final, a race it is growing to resemble more and more. But a spectacle, of sorts.
Ghost, I remember Jeff Powell penning an article in the Mail on Sunday the day after the 1990 National (the first ‘modified’ one). I seem to recall the banner being ‘The Bland National’? I could be wrong, but you’re spot on of course.
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