Bypassed fences in the GN

No I'm sure they used to "doll off" part of the fence and the horses would jump round the poor horse.
Remember on the first few fences there used to be no way of going around them so they had no choice.

So this time by bypassing a fence, rather than watching the horses jump, your attention is focused 100% on the tarpulin covered horse

Interesting but I cant remember actually seeing stricken horses (or screens) at Bechers second time around before.

No me neither but you are watching the horses jump so you don't notice or remember it so easily.

I can't remember bypassing fences in the past either but assume this isn't the first time Saturday's incidents have occurred.

They had the screens up at Bechers but it didn't matter on TV as they were showing the shot from the air. They didn't have any screens up around ornais which I found very odd and didn't help with the media storm.

Tbh, the Daily Mail have an axe to grind with the BBC, so they've highlighted their coverage as well as the fatalities. Slightly hypocritical given they most probably dedicated pages to the race in Saturday's paper.

Totally agree, Aintree have shot themselves in the foot by highlighting the dead horses to the once a year punter with a mixture of the omitted fences and the camera angles from the BBC. Its not even safer, given the fact that a loose horse narrowly missed killing a woman tending to an injured horse on the landing side of the omitted Bechers.
There are plenty of examples from past nationals of dead horses being moved and the fences being jumped ( as they should be, it is the Grand National?! ) i.e Brown Trix in 1989.
The easing of the fences has done nothing to decrease the danger to the horses, as the speed is what causes the trouble, which has been increased by the easing of the fences - its a paradox that anyone who understands jump racing has known for years.

totally agree here as well bypassing the fences was a crazy idea and one that needs rethinking.

Signing in.

I give the race 10 years max if the bypassing policy isn't reversed.

It will be less than that if the race is allowed to be run as it is currently.The anti brigade will win the day,unless we are seen to do something to improve safety.

I watched the 1989 National earlier - the last one of the old style fences.

What struck was the size back then and the width across the track. Now with the bypassing option - it seems that this is at the expense of some of the fence.

With the reduced width, does anyone else think that this means theres more bunching and they cant get as clear a sight of the fences as before?