I believe that with less horses the Grand National would be alot safer. Only 15 out of the 40 horses that started actually finished. my proposal is to only have 20 horses racing in the grand national. i know this would make some riders feel angry, but surely the beautiful and regal breed that is a horse's safety and animal rights should come first. we have lost two beautiful horses today annd that should surley been looked more closely into. I don't think Synchronised was fit to race, as we saw when he un-seated his jockey ap mccoy before the race had even begun. I fell very strongly about this point and for the safety and welfare of this beautiful breed, we come together to make it safer for them to race, not just at Aintree, but everywhere. Thank You.
I agree that there should be fewer runners, though 25-30 would be better as the track is very wide. I disagree that Synchronised getting loose had anything to do with his fatal injury. He barely cantered for about 500m before being caught. He was checked by McCoy and a vet and was visibly none the worse. Don't forget that he was injured whilst jumping as a loose horse, no one could have prevented it from happening.
It's something the BHA could definatly at least have a discussion on, if their were 20 or even 30 in it i don't think it would make much difference from a spectators point of view.
We need to actually look at what has happened and what is causing the problem before leaping to conclusions. I know the idea of a smaller field seems a sound one but so might the notion that horses must have run in a 'qualifier' over the fences beforehand. And yet Neptune Collonges, Sunnyhillboy, Seabass, Cappa Bleu, the first four home, had no experience of the fences. West End Rocker, State Of Play, Black Apalachi, etc. had all departed by fence 8. I'm not saying you're wrong (in fact I think this is probably the right thing to do), just that there needs to be evidence to support such a claim. I am in the process of writing a fairly lengthy piece on the subject.
The thing is, I'm talking to people today who have been involved in racing for years and many of them are saying to me "this can't go on". Joe Public thinks that the GN is representative of what goes on everyday in our sport, though we know that it is not. I've been surprised by the number of people that have said to me today "I'll never watch the GN again".
