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The more they keep changing the Grand National, the more the need for “win and your in races” intensifies. If only to preserve a semblance of what used to make the race so great. Honest, staying handicapper chasers.
There is still a place in the race for “Just So” types, but we need to give them a chance to qualify.The Melbourne Cup does this right, so could we.
And let’s play around even more than the Australians.The highest placed non-automatic handicapped entry should be given a starting berth (for example this seasons Welsh National winner Haiti Couleurs is so highly rated he gets in automatically – so give the next highest placed entry the slot).
I’d suggest 5 races:
Welsh National
Classic Chase
Haydock National Trial (which is now completely breaking its Trade Description Act, given only a top weighted former top class veteran is likely to make the Aintree cut now)
Eider (gives a chance to Northern Trainers)
Ultima (ensures a horse in recent top form gets a place, in 2023 Corach Rambler won and barely scrapped into Aintree)Know everyone will have a view, hopefully this will kick it off.
Forget practicalities, this is about putting a bit of romance back into the race.The previous season’s Scottish, Irish and Midlands Nationals, perhaps? Also an undertaking to reschedule any of those qualifying races lost to the weather.
That would then mean just shy of one quarter of available starting places would be ringfenced for qualifiers, though, with the possibly unintended consequence of even more sharp practice as regards protecting handicap marks, etc. as is already assumed if not proven.
As such, I’m not sure whether introducing qualifiers is a fix to be implemented in isolation, without some further tweaking of other criteria. The need for only one prior chase outing in the present season seems to me like somewhere to start.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
I totally appreciate where you are coming from Dubacilla; the race has indeed lost some of its charm in recent times.
There has been another thread on here today talking about the 1977 National. Putting aside Red Rum, the names and images of the supporting cast such as Andy Pandy, Boom Docker and Sage Merlin are hugely evocative. I doubt that memories of recent Nationals will stir the hearts of racing fans in the same way in the 2070s.
It’s almost reached the point now where I’d like to see a consolation race for horses rated over 110 who can’t get into the main field. My hope would be that this contained more of the old staying handicapper types who used to make the event so appealing.
But who am I kidding? These days such a race would likely be full of Mullins and Elliott’s lesser lights, as well as loads of novices trying their luck. The Becher Chase is probably as close to an old-style National as we are going to get nowadays.
I reluctantly accept the changes that have been made to the National, and on the whole think it fairest that the highest rated horses should be those who get to run. I’m not a big fan of the winners of certain races getting automatic entry, but think rules could be tightened further e.g. the horse must have won a chase over at least three miles.
The magic of the National has faded, but it hasn’t died for me. The race has had to evolve to survive, and I think what we have now is about as good as we can continue to have.
The logical step is to cap the number of runners any one trainer can field. The way things are going, we’ll have all 34 runners trained by Mullins and Elliott within ten years.
I fear there’d be ways of circumventing such a stipulation. Say, for argument’s sake, Elliott runners moving to the likes of Sneezy Foster on paper ahead of a predetermined deadline, without actually moving very far if at all. Better brains than mine would know how to police this.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
“There is still a place in the race for “Just So” types, but we need to give them a chance to qualify.”
I’m afraid there isn’t, the BHA recently introduced a rule where no horse can run in a handicap from more than 14 lbs out of the weights.
When Just So finished 2nd to Miinnehoma (swap the first 2 jockeys and he probably would have won) he was 22lbs out of the weights plus 3 lbs overweight. He also finished 6th to Party Politics a couple of years before when 17 lbs out of the weights plus 2 lbs overweight.Even if only 30 other horses were declared to run the likes of Just So would not be allowed to.
Just another example of how the once great race has been totally ruined by the powers that be. eg The distance of the race, powder puff fences, less runners etc.If they are not prepared to limit the number of horses running in the same colours to a reasonable level I don’t think any small concessions are going to make the race more attractive.
The curse of distinguishing caps being the only identifier for a horse ruins the look of the race too. Sacrilege to limit JP of course never mind his runners limiting everyone else.
Start with halving the prize money.
The sole problem is that the Grand National has been turned into a handicap chase, indistinguishable from other long distance races. We need to get back to 4 miles, 4 furlongs and a few yards and fences should be harder. The Grand National was all about finding relatively slow horses who could jump fences and stayed forever. It was possible that moderate horses could win a massive payout. This was empathised when the extremely slow Foinavon won the Grand National.
Of course, get the Grand National back and you will get the RSPCA and others on their high horse. But they should be ignored; it is only one race per year.
“Start with halving the prize money.”
That would certainly help. Much of the Grand National’s malaise has been caused by making it worth too much money. It is now inevitably targeted by the larger stables with better quality horses.
Unfortunately, like many good ideas, there is no chance of it happening!
“The magic of the National has faded, but it hasn’t died for me.”
I am sorry to say it has died for me. The Grand National simply doesn’t exist now. The unique character and challenge of the race has gone. What we are left with is a dishonest parody, no longer worthy of the name.
I may even go to watch football instead on the day itself. I never thought it would reach that point but I can’t say I am particularly motivated to watch yet another Mullins or Elliott horse owned by a multimillionaire win, while the media still tries to pretend it is “The People’s Race”.
It is a pity because the rest of the Aintree meeting is now top class and the racecourse is a superb facility, in contrast to what it used to be like. The Thursday and Friday are two of the best days racing of the whole year, with the former being outstanding value.
Can’t see halving the prize money making any difference, the race will still be worth more than others like the Irish National. Why wouldn’t the top stables still run as many as possible, especially with the race no longer being a jumping test.
And to think Desert Orchid couldn’t be allowed to run in the race, Dessie would have laughed his whatsit off at these excuses for fences and Red Rum will be turning in his grave.They’ve cocked it up big time with the race and there’s no turning back now.
One of the reasons why Dessie didn’t run in the race was because he had an ongoing back problem which they were always working on and they reckoned the canal turn would exacerbate it ( at least that’s what they told me).
“We need to get back to 4 miles, 4 furlongs and a few yards and fences should be harder. ”
While I think those days are gone forever, I agree that’s the difference. Just So wouldn’t have a chance to catch up now- particularly since connections are prepared to risk graded horses. Imagine him in the past couple of Nationals against I Am Maximus et al. He’d have been negotiating the last while the front few were well past the Elbow. Red Marauder wouldn’t win either- the ground would be declared unraceable and the race postponed.
I like the idea of win and you’re in, if only to bolster the quality of early season handicaps like the Coral gold cup. Although I expect Mullins would send over 3 or 4 lower weighted types and the likes of Lecky Watson would still take the route of tiddling around the back at Leopardstown till the weights are out, then a tenderly ridden pipe opener in the Bobbyjo.
“it’s almost reached the point now where I’d like to see a consolation race for horses rated over 110 who can’t get into the main field. My hope would be that this contained more of the old staying handicapper types who used to make the event so appealing”
Aintree missing a trick by not altering the conditions of The Becher and renaming it The Silver Grand National (Win & You’re In). Make it 3.5 miles, cap the mark at maybe 155 (Mr Vango was highest rated in 2025 running off 152: average and median OR was 137) and add 50k to take total prize money to £200k. I think you might well get as close to as you could to an ‘old fashioned’ Grand National every year, with no firm ground worries. The only year it has not been run since 1992 is 2024. The win and you’re in should ensure a good turnout. There have been just two single figure fields in the last 30 years.
There are incremental changes they could make to assist with catering the race towards it’s intended clientele.
The prize money definitely contributes to the issue in my opinion. I would halve it as a minimum, if not more and put it into the supporting races. Drive their value up.
I would increase the minimum number of chase runs required. I hate seeing runners having their sixth run over fences in the National. I think it’s begging for trouble. On top of that I would turn the minimum “runs” into minimum “completions”. The annual National each way pickers will gavitate towards a race that has recurring characters, names they recognise from the previous years or from catching the odd Saturday race.
The rule of “finishing in the first 4 in a race over 3 miles” is painfully flawed. Finish 4th beaten out of sight in a 5 runner chase and you’re qualified. Finish 5th beaten 3 lenths in a 20 runner handicap and you’re not. The rule should be to finish “placed” in a 3 mile chase utilising standard each way terms.
Ruby Walsh once suggested a rule of having to have finished in the first four in a 3 mile chase in one of your last 3 runs, which I didn’t think was the worst idea in the world, espeically if you applied the “placed” rule instead. His argument is you don’t just want the top rated, you want the best ‘in form’ rated runners.
I just don’t see how you can police a cap on runners from owners or trainers. I was pig sick seeing 10 no hopers taking up places in the 2019 renewal to make Tiger Roll’s job easier and I was keen to see a cap introduced, but I just can’t see how it can work.
I do believe ‘win and you’re in’ has scope, conceptually. However I almost feel like if you’re going to go down that route, why not go full Pertemps Final and have the race limited to qualifiers? Have a wide range of races that you must place in to qualify for a run in the Grand National? They’ve changed the race so radically already, why not experiment further? Won’t do the race any more harm.
I’m not talking about fences this year. I’ve mentioned my idea about park fences dressed in spruce enough.
It needs renaming as now the stayers chase. It’s just like a cross country race or glenfarclas chase minus the cheese wedges and raised mounds
VF x
VF – totally agree, its now simply a long distance staying chase just with different looking fences, the ‘Grand’ in the name title should be dropped and it should be renamed either the Aintree National or the English National (although that would probably trigger some cupcakes saying you can’t call it that even though we have an Irish, Scotish and Welsh versions of the race).
Once they compacted the weights to attract the higher rated chasers and then took most of the guts out of the fences, leveled off Beechers, reduced the distance of the race and bumped the prize money up all of the romance of the fairy tale underdog winning the race quickly exited stage left.
The tough conditions of the race was always the great leveler and was quintessentially what made the race ‘special’ because the little guy could compete (and win) against the big guys – now you don’t even need a specifically good old fashioned safe jumper to get round the course as you can take much bigger liberties at the fences (i.e. bad jumping technique) and in large part get away with it.
Jockeys riding tactics also now begin from the moment the tape goes back whereas before it used to be just hunt around on the first circuit and then ride your race on the second circuit.
No amount of PR spin can cover up that it is now no longer the race it once was i.e. the greatest test of a NH racehorse.
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