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Non Vintage was a former Easterby horse. He ran 144 times!
L’Es Fremantle was coming up on the rails with the 104 runs (one win). He’s never fallen. Unseated twice.
The horses always seem to enjoy what they’re doing even though they’re moderate. On the whole they’re safe conveyances for conditionals.
Always remember his horse Feeling Peckish. Just 1 win in 139 races under rules.
He had Orpen Wide who won 19 of his 172 races although he ended his career with a 54 race losing streak.
You can’t say he wraps his horses up in cotton wool.
I wonder how he managed to get a Grand National qualified runner so early on his training career? I assume Foresail must have won a race of a certain value?
I missed a trick there Ruby. He does seem to use a lot of conditionals. Not sure if that’s because most of his horses are way out of the handicap or the pro’s aren’t interested. They all seem to jump well.
Let’s hope he turns his attention to the flat as he has completely dominated NH both sides of the Irish Sea. Little else to achieve.
What’s the odds of him having his first Derby winner by 2030?
That was a proper National that still resembled the Scottish National from the 1970s.
Plumpton is a challenge. Probably more of a challenge than the National course now on that downhill section. I think there have been 4 fatalities at Plumpton in 2024. If Animal Rising turned up there (some chance) they might get more than a flea in the ear.
Something I was looking at a few years ago was the number of horses fatally injured whilst wearing headgear of some kind. Has that ever been looked into by the BHA?
The race to win the trainers title between Pipe & Nicholls was a very unedifying sight and led I believe to the trainers title being decided by prize money.
Not sure Mullins winning the trainers titles in both the UK & Ireland is a good advert for the sport at all.
The demise of the 4 mile plus chase has been ongoing for a while now. Even the Grand National shortened in distance. Just how many 4 mile plus chases are there now? I’m sure Doncaster & Market Rasen used to have one?
If a 4 day Festival can’t find room for a 4 mile chase it doesn’t say much for NH racing and the direction it’s travelling. They run a 4 mile Hunter Chase at Cheltenham in May.
I would be happy for it to be a limited handicap but I would restrict it to 1st/2nd season chasers with one win or less. I wouldn’t want the Midlands National to lose too many potential runners.
Return the NH Chase (the oldest race of the Festival) back to 4 miles for 1st and 2nd season chasers that have won only 1 or less chases.
They have vandalised this race with the recent changes, when prior to it the race was providing various National winners and a Gold Cup winner.
Many issues arose leading up to the latest changes by running it as the last race of the day on churned up ground.
Not surprised the price they charge. The Racing Post Weekender is now £5.90!! I’m dreading the day there is no print version of the trade paper. Hate looking at form online. They should get the online subscription to help subsidise the print version.
Wasn’t happy when the Racing Post stopped printing the results books for NH & Flat. But for Covid they would probably still be printing it. Of course we lost the Timeform annuals too.
I ran my first Grand National sweepstake in my 1st year at secondary school aged 11 the year Rag Trade won.
I continued running the office sweepstakes when I started work aged 17. Out of an office of say 80 you would get about 2 staff members decline on animal welfare grounds.
That might have increased by 1 or 2 by the 1990s.
It wasn’t much fun doing the Office sweepstake after the false start and bomb scare National’s. I stopped doing them soon after to avoid any more grief.
With so many working from home now would you even think to do an office sweepstake?
By the way when doing the sweepstake I would always cater for every type of horse. There used to be a prize for the horse finishing last.
Thank the Lord someone in the racing media has stuck their head above the parapet. It’s a shame Forristal didn’t go a bit further.
The National is going the same way as the FA Cup Final which has lost all meaning where most viewers could take or leave it. The FA Cup final could once upon a time captivate TV audiences running into the tens of millions as could the National even accepting there were less channels.
Just like the National the start time alters every few years. The New Wembley now looks just like any other football ground as does the National looking like any other race. There are few stories to be had just like the National and very little drama. You can barely remember the players names from year to year just as we won’t remember many of those who take part in the National. They were probably trained by Mullins or Elliott whoever they were. The finishes will all look the same as 27 or 28 runners make the final turn. Every FA Cup Final memory seemingly merges into one.
Perhaps I should just be grateful that my informative years were through the 1970s when both events would empty the High Streets across the land.
Those confident that NH Racing in the UK will survive for many years to come should take a look at the experience in Australia where now only one State allows the sport, South Australia being the last to ban it in 2022. Lower obstacles meant faster racing meant more fatalities.
I lay much of the blame for setting in motion the destruction of the Grand National including changing the historic distance of the longest race at the door of Jamie Stier formerly of the BHA. How ironic he now works for Racing Victoria the only State that still has jump racing. Not for much longer I’ll hazard a guess.
It does strike you looking at the flimsy walk through nature of the Aintree fences that Auteuil would be far more of a challenge for 34 runners. I don’t see I Am Maximus jumping their big open ditch & hedge and enormous water jump with the contempt he showed for Aintree’s poor excuses for a fence.
In fact as mentioned by others in the past how is it that in France they don’t by-pass fences for low sun, etc and you can’t by-pass fences? Do they take a more pragmatic view when it comes to horse & jockey safety?
There is one alteration I would like Aintree to make next year and that’s to draw a thick red line something they have seemingly failed to have done since tinkering with the race/fences back in 1990.
There were two fatalities at Aintree on the Mildmay track but I would hazard a guess that they will put that down to bad luck. That is never the cause on the National track as we know.
The never ending alterations in the Bland National have been exposed later on down the line by the law of unintended consequences. Hence more alterations. Expect more of the same.
It normally doesn’t take long. What was considered acceptable for horse & rider by Aintree Racecourse, owners & trainers prior to the 2023 renewal is now unacceptable 12 months later.
Give it another few years and we’ll hear those immortal words yet again ‘the race has to evolve’. God knows what it will look like in another 10 years? Perhaps we won’t have to worry if Putin goes nuclear!
The National has to ‘evolve’ as to not upset modern day sensibilities. When did this word ‘evolve’ first come into use in relation to racing and other sports? Who are all these ‘progressive’ types we are trying to endlessly appease?
Apart from being shorter in distance, over far lower fences made of plastic with bundles of very loose spruce on top, with a restriction on runners with the drops all removed and the first fence moved forward and run off’s at nearly every fence it’s almost identical to the race Rummy strutted his stuff.
The National has become emasculated with its arms and legs cut off. It’s a Jockey Club version of the Monty Python scene. Is there anything left to cut off? It has become the Cesarewitch with an extra 2 furlongs attached.
Those defending the current National are defending something that really doesn’t exist any longer.
Those using the new enlightened Ruby Walsh comments about this years National (won by his close friend and ex-boss) to highlight how wonderful it was. Ignoring the fact Walsh has a vested interest being in the payroll of ITV & RTV this is the same Ruby Walsh who said in 2014 “You can replace a horse. It’s sad, but horses are animals, outside your back door. Humans are humans, they are inside your back door. You can replace a horse but you can’t replace a human being.”
There is a sad irony that whilst racing has been back-slapping about this years National and praised by many on social media that in the last 48 hours two horses suffered horrific injuries in concluding races at Hereford & Kelso (is it that surprising when the ground is at its worse). Will the media and those involved in the sport be reporting this or is all about that one day in the year? I think the answer is blatantly obvious and always has been.
I would prefer the Grand National to be a through test of jumping ability and stamina. What it was for the most part for 173 years.
The race should never have been reduced in distance. That consigned all previous runnings & records to the history books.
The fences should remain a fair challenge. The pendulum has swung to a ridiculous level where 1544 fences jumped last week by all 78 horses over the National fences resulted in 2 falls (0.1%). That is not a challenge at any level let alone the National where it was a key component.
And before another person uses the cheap jibe “you like seeing horses fall?” and what about “horse welfare” trying to make out anyone who loves jump racing gets some sadistic pleasure when a horse falls utterly misses the point.
If jumping racing isn’t about jumping and the skill of the horse in getting from one side of a fence to the other what exactly is it about? A horse that falls does not equal instant fatality.
