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Some excellent comments Craig.
On the BBC message board (TV not racing) someone has posted the names of horses that died fatally in the National from its inception to last year. There are less fatalities reported before the 1950s (this might be lack of records) but there appears to have been an increase in the last 20 or so years.
This might be to do with some of the points someone made earlier about the different type of horse taking part, but it also might be to do with the easing of the fences & that horses no longer respect them. It would be worth examining this list further against such other factors going & numbers of runners as there do seem to be pockets of deaths.
I do not think they should run short races over the course & I agree it should be watered.Today’s Grand National reminded me why I love steeplechasing. It is worth it to watch these majestic animals do what they are meant to do.
I prefer the jumps to the flat and actually, welfare comes into it for me! I think a lot of times the flat horses can simply be worth too much. With a mind to breeding they are so often coddled, kept boxed and legs wrapped and all sorts and rarely if ever turned out to just be horses. They are just too valuable to risk an injury in the paddocks, and I think as a result they can find their lifestyle stressful.
I like the fact that many more National Hunt horses, often being geldings so without breeding value, get to live more normal lives, turned out and taken hunting and hacked out and all sorts!
A horse that loves jumping over these big fences is an absolute joy to watch. I love following the horses from season to season- these are the ones that take to their jobs and suit it.
If smaller fences encourage steeplechases to be run at higher speed and result in more fallers, how come there are usually more fallers in the Becher chase than in, say, the Hennessey, which is usually run faster and with a larger field size?
i enjoyed watching the national today, i hated watching the foxhunters the other day though
but you could tell horses like black apalachi, where loving it
vf
I find it a difficult watch much of the time and much prefer the flat. Have to say though, the races on the National Course this year were compelling. The likes of Silver Adonis, Frankie Figg and Black Apalachi did themselves and the sport proud this week with their bold front running, huge leaps, guts and bravery.
Was a privilege to witness it.
Early indications:
All horses back safe and well…
And yet the race was run in a time nine seconds faster than standard.
One in the eye for those that insist fastish ground is the reason for fatalities.
They didn’t exactly crawl either.
Hi Crepello:
There is no doubt records were more loosely kept (not always through ineptness though) certainly in the era before television (1960 at Aintree) and ready access to playback facilities for the viewer and form expert (late 70’s to be nice, more likely early to mid 80’s.)
Clearly horses are on the whole less robust than even the mid 80’s. Increasingly bred for speed and the lack of horses it seems who were bred for jumping and or schooled in hunting and careful jumping from a young age seems to be a thing of the past.
But there is no getting around the fact in most cases if you take a yearling and train the animal to jump, develop stamina and build bulk by the time it is 6 or 7 it is going to be far better equipped for a National Hunt career than a horse who was bred for speed.
The problem the Grand National faces is currently it raises more questions than it supplies answers. The paradox is many of the questions it raises allows people to criticize the race when many of the issues (aside from the track related ones) need to be addressed by other sections of the racing industry who remainly firmly silent on the issues.
And if I were in charge of the Grand National, that is certainly something I would want public discourse on.
Craig
If smaller fences encourage steeplechases to be run at higher speed and result in more fallers, how come there are usually more fallers in the Becher chase than in, say, the Hennessey, which is usually run faster and with a larger field size?
Hi Kifill:
And you raise a fair question…let me try to answer it from my position as an observer. Maybe someone with direct racing experience on the forum may be able to offer more insight.
I like your comparision with the Hennessey. Like Aintree, Newbury is a fairly galloping course with reasonably tight turns, well spread out fences and well built fences, come to that.
But it is there where the similarities end. I can’t remember a Hennessey where the course was not at least on the soft side of good. I think the quality of the turf (just from walking the course) is better than that of Aintree – the Hennessey compared to the Becher Chase is longer, has better quality horses and often has established pacemakers and horses who like to come off the pace. The way the Hennessey is often run allows for these different racing styles to compliment each other and makes for very exciting racing. One cannot say the same for the Becher Chase in its current incarnation.
Craig
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Its the height at which horses drop the other side and land on which seems to crumble so many runners. Whilst an amazing spectacle when going right, it has so often gone wrong for so many…
Horse racing is a funny old game. Take the owners of Dream Alliance, they said today how they turned off and cried when he pulled up at Aintree a few years back and thought he was dead, but yet they now go and run him in what is the most dangerous race there is.
Its a strange aul game
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By the way Im not having a go at the owners of Dream Alliance, I watched the peice and they seem like such lovely people with such a great story to tell.
Just seemed rather strange they wanted to risk a horse they loved so much
Just my opinion but I feel racing should take a leaf out of Australia’s book on this one (And I wouldnt often say that) but in Melbourne they have scrapped their version of the race because three horses died in the race (I think last year)
Barely warrants comparison, to be honest – the race you’re referring to is / was frequently contested by Flat-breds racing over trips they can’t cope with, on lightning fast ground, and with the "fences" being little more than yellow dandy brushes on metals stands.
Rather than address any of the issues that made such contests unedifying and occasionally dangerous individually (i.e. by insisting on ground no worse than good, or by devising better fences), the Victoria state just opted for the cheap and mindless alternative of banning the discipline of jumping outright.
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
the Hennessey compared to the Becher Chase is longer,
Give or take a few yards, they’re both 3m2f, the last I checked. Were you thinking of the Topham (2m6f)?
HTH,
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
Have you never had a dream, Joncol? Their dream was to breed a Grand National winner. Whats the point of breeding the horse and then not running it? As they said, they turned down an offer of £100,000 to loan the horse out for the day, because he was their horse, running for them. They spent thousands saving his life thinking that he would never race again afterwards. How many people try to breed a horse good enough to run in the National one day only to fail? I respect their courage and their belief in the horse. As for the woman who bred him, I think in another life she could have been anything; a truly amazing person. I am totally in awe of her.
Just my opinion but I feel racing should take a leaf out of Australia’s book on this one (And I wouldnt often say that) but in Melbourne they have scrapped their version of the race because three horses died in the race (I think last year)
I certainly wouldn’t be giving Australian racing the moral high ground, being that they still get a thrill from forcing standardbreds to pace around Harold Park with some fat guy in silks in tow.
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If you look at my post you will notice I did comment after it saying "I wouldnt often say that".
I was suggesting to take their stand on one issue, not them all
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