bnb, I think you are probably right, they all took the wrong course, so in theory the race should have been declared void.

It happened in the Grand National remember

Whilst I hate to agreed with the stewards you have to remember that people commenting on here have had the benefit of numerous reruns to make their decision not two minutes as happens on the course. I remember many years ago seeing a race at either southwell or uttoxeter wher a similar incident occured and the horses were allowed to jump the fence. Unfortunately the ambulance staff had just put the injured jockey onto the stretcher and the horse had to swerve either side of them to avoid hitting the stretcher.

lets face facts they both took the wrong course .
they were supposed to jump the last .

No they did the right thing by swerving the fence

Apparently the fence was only partially boarded off in case a loose horse decided to jump the fence.

Theres a rule in british horse racing....you're not allowed to jump any part of the fence / hurdle if only a section is dolled off....so as far as the stewards are concerned Lynch shouldve known from the moment he landed over the 2nd last that he had to avoid the fence....no excuses...his corrective strikes with the whip deemed unnecesary and banned.

crazy stuff.

I was on Sizing, and there today.

He was still in the lead after the fence, and got taken over on the run in. Wishful thinking falling lost him the race

I believe that the way in which the fence was dolled off indicates that the officials intention was to allow the final fence to be jumped. However they all bypassed it and the race should therefore be declared void. The officials probably feel that they should let the result stand and not declare it void as the whole situation was so badly handled and they would look extremely incompetent, this being such a high profile race. Hence the waffle spoken by the head of the stewards just after the race who didn't seem to know what he was talking about.
The way in which the horses and riders were forced to swerved around the last looked in itself a dangerous manouevre having to swerve violently which could have caused a stumble and injuries to both horses and riders who were travelling at full speed.
If the intention was really to divert the horses around the final fence why was the hurdle fence not removed out of the way as this could have been the cause of even more problems. Thankfully all horses and riders were OK but the whole incident was a disgrace.

Over 9 hours later and some smart R's has found the ideal solution.  Remove the hurdle. What a shame that wasn't thougtht of in the 1 min they had to act.

having been reading the comments made by the forums punters on here this morning i think the majority have come to the conclusion without being biased that the race should have either been void due to the horses not jumping the last fence therefore taking the wrong course, or that sizing europe approaching the last fence was at least half a length up and did seem to be on a very good line into the fence, not to say that means he would have won for sure but having to swerve so violently across the track being so close to the last fence and striking into finians whom did seem to be trying to keep him in did probably cost him the race no fault of geraghty i might add very good ride by him but i think UNLUCKY LOSER.

Finian's Rainbow would have won regardless or not they jumped the fence. To be honest SE is quite old for a 2M championship chaser and only Moscow Flyer has won in the last ten years above the age of 9. It would have been outspeeded anyway.

In the last thirty years only four horses have won the race at 10 or over: Rathgorman, One Man, Martha's Son (lightly raced) and Moscow Flyer. Three of those were extremely high quality and Martha's won in a very substandard year so the odds and history were actually against SE.

Too many people talking through their pockets.