Bottom weight entries

Part C

3.1 Part C of this Schedule applies to the Grand National Steeple Chase.
3.2 Elimination will occur in the following sequence

3.2.1 Horses with the lowest weights.
3.2.2 Horses with the same weights - where it is necessary to eliminate some, but not all, horses with the same weight elimination will be determined by using the horses' current Handicap Rating at the time of elimination, the horse with the lowest Handicap Rating being eliminated first.

its was decided by ballot resulting in the current listing.
So horse #45 needs 5 to come out etc.

^ Not according to the BHA whose rules I have copied to here above

Top  40 horses run ie highest rated

'A random ballot for those on the same weight at the cut off point has been made with the David Pipe-trained Swing Bill in pole position followed by Goonyella, Soll, Night In Milan, Minella For Value and Saint Are.'

Taken from the Life website...

So it would seem that the Sporting Life disagree with the BHA rules over whether a ballot is used!   

However it was decided, that of the 3 horses rated 136 and nominally allocated 9st13, Night in Milan should placed at No44 above Minella for Value and Saint Are I still don't know. However, I  am delighted that my ante post bet on N in M may yet get a run at the bottom end of the weights.

Current Handicap Ratings for those three are as follows:

Night In Milan 144
Minella For Value 136
Saint Are 129

The Sporting Life don't even seem to know that Swing Bill and Goonyella are a 1Lb higher in the Handicap than Soll who is a 1lb higher than the other three, so wouldn't take what they say too literally. I'm confident the BHA rules are correct.

Swing Bill is currently rated 138, Goonyella's Irish rating is 135 and you can't access what his UK rating is, but ran off 138 in Welsh GN so possibly dropped a bit after that.

You have to remember that because the Handicapper has compressed the handicap the ratings for 'today' i.e. race day shown in the RP are not necessarily the horses official handicap rating but a deduction from Tidal's Bay rating of 161 for this race.

Thanks Big Issue. A couple of perfectly clear explanations which seem to clear up the listing process. Reading back through the BHA rules again, it is pretty clear now what they mean by :
           "horses with the same weight elimination will be determined by using the horses' current Handicap Rating at the time of elimination"