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Now due to go off at 5.15pm on the Saturday.
I wonder how many fences they’ll need to miss out because of low sun.
Shouldn’t be a problem as sun won’t set until about 8 pm. Although with reference to the other thread the pissheads will be even more pissed
My vote is for a day-night Grand National with the whips, bridles and finishing post being luminous yellow. Also if you pass a breathalyser at the turnstiles you are barred from entering until sufficiently intoxicated.
BUY THE SUN
Doesn’t mean the angle will be fine at 5.15pm sunwise homersimpson. Iirc at a race meeting a little while ago some obstacles were missed out at 1pm in the afternoon due to low sun, well before the 4-4.30pm sunset time.
The Tatling Cheekily isn’t that the case already as far as entry to the course goes? (wink)
The enclosures will be waist deep in fake tan and vomit by the time they are off.
Will be like a scene from the original zombies dawn of the dead.Oh dear, the World is going to end because the Grand National is later.
Good decision if getting more people watching/betting.
Value Is EverythingThere’s more channels and more things to do then back in the day.
More people wont watch it whatever time of day the race starts.Gaelic Warrior Gold Cup Winner 2026
ok I have no objection to moving the time but why not move it to sunday less to clash with channel 4 could have the big runup to the race like we had in the oldays and if it didn’t work what have we lost the people who love racing will always watch it seem to remember when they had it on the Monday in 97 didn’t stop people tuning in the next year !!!!
At 5:15 on Saturday April 9th, 2016, the sun in the Liverpool area will be on a bearing of 249 degrees and an elevation of 23 degrees above the horizon. This is not a wild guess, it’s a scientific fact.
The section of the National course from the home turn to the elbow on the run-in is on a bearing of approx 250 degrees.
So if it’s a bright, sunny day, that sun will be shining straight into the eyes of the jockeys as they approach the second last and last fences of the National. Now it may well be that the sun will be high enough in the sky for that not to be a concern. But rather than burying heads in the sand and ignoring this possibility until the horses are milling around at the start in front of, hopefully, a 10M+ TV audience, perhaps it would be sensible to address the issue in advance.
A guy on Twitter said, ‘Aintree are being very sexist with this move, as most women will be in the kitchen cooking or washing up’
:)
At 5:15 on Saturday April 9th, 2016, the sun in the Liverpool area will be on a bearing of 249 degrees and an elevation of 23 degrees above the horizon. This is not a wild guess, it’s a scientific fact.
The section of the National course from the home turn to the elbow on the run-in is on a bearing of approx 250 degrees.
So if it’s a bright, sunny day, that sun will be shining straight into the eyes of the jockeys as they approach the second last and last fences of the National. Now it may well be that the sun will be high enough in the sky for that not to be a concern. But rather than burying heads in the sand and ignoring this possibility until the horses are milling around at the start in front of, hopefully, a 10M+ TV audience, perhaps it would be sensible to address the issue in advance.
Agreed it should be thoroughly checked and connections made aware of the fact beforehand but I think 23 degrees shouldn’t be a problem, even head-on. For example, the maximum altitude of the sun (1200 GMT) in December is around and about 15 degrees so races at this time of year are confronted with a significantly lower sun throughout the meetings than will be experienced at 5.15 in April
I remember in my salad days following the mighty Scunthorpe United and listening to ‘The Nash’ on a wireless at half time.
The result would then be announced on a worse than useless tannoy, to great cheers.
Sounds **** but Saturday’s don’t get a lot better. The excitement crackled in the air.
I’m too nostalgic for all this media-savvy stuff.
BUY THE SUN
Perhaps the most telling comment was from Peter Harvey, who used to be the chief reporter for the Liverpool Echo:
‘How sad. The Grand National used to dominate that day’s agenda, now it’s chasing it’
At 5:15 on Saturday April 9th, 2016, the sun in the Liverpool area will be on a bearing of 249 degrees and an elevation of 23 degrees above the horizon. This is not a wild guess, it’s a scientific fact.
The section of the National course from the home turn to the elbow on the run-in is on a bearing of approx 250 degrees.
So if it’s a bright, sunny day, that sun will be shining straight into the eyes of the jockeys as they approach the second last and last fences of the National. Now it may well be that the sun will be high enough in the sky for that not to be a concern. But rather than burying heads in the sand and ignoring this possibility until the horses are milling around at the start in front of, hopefully, a 10M+ TV audience, perhaps it would be sensible to address the issue in advance.
Anecdotally I can’t ever remember issues with low sun in April. But of course, the plural of anecdotes is not data.
I would hope that the BHA have done their homework in addressing the key details of races affected in this and previous seasons. If you look at racecourse, date of meeting, time of race, what the jockeys said, and maybe one or two other factors I can’t think of right now, you should be armed with enough data to enable a sensible decision on a revised off time.
You probably know this already but about 6 weeks ago the BHA issued a ‘low sun’ protocol, like so:
http://www.britishhorseracing.com/new-low-sun-protocol-to-be-introduced/
“The new protocol, which we discussed with the jockeys at their recent Jump Jockeys Seminars and kicks in straight away, just asks them to follow a few steps before that decision (to request obstacles be omitted) is made, as follows:
If riders consider there may be a problem they should inform the Stipendiary Stewards as soon as possible, who will then inform the Clerk of the Course;
Riders should ride past the obstacle(s) that they have concerns over on the way to the start;
If riders still have concerns when arriving at the start, they should inform the Starter who will radio the Stipendiary Stewards;
The Stipendiary Stewards will then liaise with the Clerk of the Course to consider alternatives to removing obstacle(s);
If obstacle(s) have to be removed an announcement will be made;
If there are further races remaining on the card then the process above should be repeated for each race.”
Personally I don’t think this helps much. The jockeys still make the call, which is as it should be. Jockeys, though, have been known to make calls that are best described as peculiar:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/horse-racing/30641490
“After concerns raised by the jockeys, the three flights of hurdles on one side of the track were omitted in two races, reducing the number to be jumped to a paltry four.
However, the runners in the steeplechase staged in between those two hurdle races – with the sun still shining bright – jumped all of their fences, including those adjacent to the bypassed obstacles.
And, there’s more: in the final race of the day, which took place with dusk gathering, inexplicably, the same three hurdles were again missed out.”
Several jockeys who rode in the chase also rode in the hurdle races affected.
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