This game must stop now !!!!!!

I've awoke this morning to find the Cat has chewed off the heads from both Jerome Fandor and Elton and the tails from Marmaduke Jinks and Flamenco from my Totopoly game.

Now going back a number of years this would not have happened as they were made of metal. I have been in contact with Waddingtons who have said that " Due to a number of injuries to participants, whereby disgruntled Trainers would launch the old style metal horses at there opponents, causing nasty bumps to there heads, they had no option but to change to the plastic horse version ". This change however would not detract from the overall game experience.

Now to my real point.......

The Grand National is constantly being modified in the interest of so called safety to the horses involved. Recent results from 2002 do not seem to reflect that the changes have had any effect.
I remember quite well the stricken Dark Ivy after fatally trying to negotiate Bechers Brook back in 1987, with the camera angle enabling you to see the horse lying stricken on the landing side for a considerable time. This did not paint a very good image of The Grand National and since then several changes started to be made to the course and fences.
Previous fatalities before 1987 were nowhere near as common place as they are nowadays, although i would suspect that not every one would have been captured back then as it wasn't so much high profile.
A number of factors over the last 10-20 years have more than likely had more of an effect on the number of fatalities and i'll list a few of my thoughts.

1. The lowering of the fences means the course is negotiated in a far quicker time than years before, going comparable.

2. The average quality of the participants from years by has no doubt improved, which in turn would also lead to travelling quicker.

3. Course management in respect of drainage has lead to the going more often than not classified as good to soft or good, and a soft ground or heavy ground national is much less commonplace unless a downpour in the day's proceeding the race is experienced.

4. The fence that has claimed the most horses, namely Bechers Brook, has been modified no end of times since 1987, yet still continues to claim regular victims. Their must be other reasons other than the landing or height of this obstacle for this to happen, and possibly it's the position of the fence that is to blame. Jockey's looking for an advantage in trying to negotiate the fence at an angle as the bend comes fairly quickly afterwards, may be a contributing factor. In comparison the highest fence, namely The Chair, taken in the straight has claimed far less victims.

6. The breed of the typical NH horse is slowly being eradicated for the faster flat bred influence. Although you could argue that did not apply even back in Red Rum's day's, as i'm sure he was never thought of as a National winner as a youngster.

There are probably more factors to bare in mind, these are just a few of mine. But one thing is for sure, all the meddling that has taken place quite clearly has had no effect in recent years. As with my experience with Jerome and Elton in particular this morning.

Changing is not always for the best, the intention is there to improve, but results say otherwise.