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THE WOKE HAVE WON >
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Fair Point imp
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It is not viewed as a delicacy impossible, same as at home it is mainstream albeit a tad more expensive than beef, much healthier btw.
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I love jump racing and grew up watching races at Towcester, the toughest test possible for an NH horse, but I would be amazed if NH racing was still going by say 2050. If you follow jump racing, you have to accept that it is dangerous and to some degree cruel as I do. The majority of sports, leisure pursuits, and industries, that involve animals, clearly are. There is far more focus on this issue now and the scrutiny is only going to get more intense.
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Racing got the Grand National it needed on Saturday, according to Ed Chamberlin, who refused to be downbeat despite 1.4 million fewer people tuning in to ITV for Aintree's big race compared to the previous year.
Chamberlin led the ITV Racing team across the three-day meeting and said the fall from 7.5m viewers to 6.1m for the National was predictable after the race was run an hour and a quarter earlier at 4pm on Saturday. |
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No Horses were killed so i would call that a very very good result for the Race.
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The 3 races over the Fences all were safe and sound ,No one can knock that tbh
I remember Carnage in the Hunter Chase a few years back |
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Yeah but aint The National case.
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No the Spectacle is no more
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ITV News headlines
Two horses die at Grand National as animal charities call for end to racing The changes will not stop them calling for the end of racing and the media word it such away that anyone just reading them would think it's in the GN. |
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You can't expect anyone who is not a racing fan to distinguish between the GN and any of the other races on the card, or even at any other racecourse. The campaigners use the GN meeting to shout louder as they know it has the media's attention but the vast majority of the herd that is called the "public" would not notice the difference if the dead horse broke a leg in a 5 furlong sprint at Lingfield. There are animal rights movements in other countries but they don't get anything close to the publicity or support that they do here.
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I agree with Sage. Using the number of fatalities to assess an events acceptability is flawed. Some 15 people have died in the London marathon - so ban it? An average of two riders die each year in the Isle of Man TT races. - so ban them ?
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Aye but they have a choice the Horse disney.
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I'm not calling for the race to revert to what it was, my point is that because it can't be the test it once was it shouldn't even exist now, no-one likes horse deaths but we all still used to watch, look forward to and enjoy the race in its purest form.
In a perfect world racing would have seen the shift in the modern world coming and gotten rid of it before we got into the situation we find ourselves in now where the race is being mistakenly put up as a beacon of racing being able to listen to the crowd. If you listen to many commentators post race you'll hear how it was a success and they seem to think that racing has reached that sweet spot, this is complete nonsense, horses didn't die, as soon as one does die again the whole thing will once again be front and centre and lets see if racing stands up and says to the masses, no more changes, that death was acceptable. Racing thinks it's solved the problem and the National is now the evidence of this but in reality the national is a Trojan horse being used by the mob and will sooner or later be used once again as a means to beat the game about the head with. |
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The most tedious National in living memory.
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I managed to back 4 winners of the present Grand National in the last 6 years. However, my last winner in the old Grand National was Red Marauder (lucky to acquire an unwanted bet slip) - a big gap. Prior were Rough Quest and Rhyme 'N' Reason - another significant gap.
Am I more astute, and lucky? Or is it easier to back the winner of the present Grand National? I Am Maximus (jfav), Corach Rambler (fav) and Tiger Roll (fancy/fav). I hope a proper horseracing journo is sufficiently brave and intelligent to call it The Cross-Country Grand National next year. |
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Think the topic has fast become chip wrappings already impossible , everyone has a moan whilst topical but forget about it now until the same debate in 12 months time.
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The 'Fake' Grand National
2 great letters in the Racing Post this week (surprised the woke RP actually ran them, but fair do's) - both pointing out how the race has been neutered to the point of death in terms of its raison d'être; a unique race with a jumping challenge unlike any other race in the calendar. The 'fences' are now only around 4feet in height. Watching the race from the head-on camera gave the game away big time - 4ft of fence, cut straight across, then 2 or 3 feet of brush cuttings careful manicured and piled on top, to give the impression its actually a 'big' fence. Hence the result, thirty odd horses simply bursting through the brush cuttings - no wonder there wasn't many fallers, a tetchy novice chaser could get around that course now given the stamina to last the 4.2miles Those head-on shots were stark testimony to just how much jump racing custodians have kowtowed to the various animal rights minority groups and the woke agenda The public wants an ultra-competitive race, with 66-1 shots just as likely to win as a 7-1 favourite. In reality, the race is now a glorified cross country race likely to be dominated each year by high class animals from the big battalions. Gradually the race will wither away on the vine And don't for a minute think these protest groups will now pat the Jockey Club and BHA on the back and say 'well done' - Far from it, they sense weakness, they smell blood, and they will be relentless in coming back for even more 'improvements' Their clear stated aim is to end ALL horse racing Fitzgerald and all the other cronies spouting 'this is the race we wanted' are so far off mark its untrue. Turkeys voting for Christmas, the lot of em. |
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There are clearly 2 points of view on this so we can only take sides. I think that a National should be a spectacle where a big field have to negotiate 30 fences (and some of them like the Chair are almost as big as they ever were), at leasst 10 of them get to the third last with a realistic chance and then it becomes a test of speed and stamina. I did back Corach Rambler and I am Maximus. One fell at the first and the other won. You can't have a more extreme difference than that. The important thing for me was that one of mine was in contention (although I would not have taken 25/1 at the fourth last) and as it happens it won. Too often in the old days a pick of two horses might not get me past Bechers first time round so I turn over to football.
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'sageform, that's the thing about the Grand National; backing a few and not getting a run beyond The Chair. And, if managing to back the winner is a mega bragging right one always remembers.
Notwithstanding, the prize money for winning is a cool £500k. What? For winning a glorified cross-country race? What a cheat! |
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I still found it an exciting race and you guys have got to get real the safety of horse and jockey is paramount.And that True Test To Man And Horse bullsh1t you can stuff that.
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'acey', that's not the point. The point is the Grand National of old is long gone after the repeated tweaking, managing and appeasing the animal right clan (mind you I'm all for that). However, some bookie stooges on tv and the bookies' paper still try to "sell" the present Grand National as the race of old when it's clearly not; these bookies' stooges are deliberately being disingenuous, and without self-respect.
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Agree with IMP they got to drop 'Grand'
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The Good old days.
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Same here lady, the thought had sprung with me immediately too.
Nothing "Grand" about it now. |
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How anyone could find the race exciting is beyond me, it was pretty boring.
Good to see some articles this week that ring true with supporters on NH racing |
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I doubt there is a more ardent NH supporter than myself but it's about time people realised that the changes made were not all to appease the antis which misses the common sense that has been used to keep the race viable. Too many look back with rose tinted specs and moan about modernity and change and the "Good Old Days"!!
Young boys sent up chimneys, rickets and scurvy eradicated as the world moved on etc but the GN stood still in terms of safety of horses and jockeys and would have been unsaleable if it had not changed. Not a mention from anyone I have seen about the revenue from worldwide sales of the race without which it probably would not have survived in its old form? Last weeks race looked like a race, played out like a proper handicap and gave enough of a test of jumping and stamina to regard it as unique in NH, easy to sell to countries where NH is not a part of their racing scene. Compare it with Red Marauder and ask which version would sell in the modern world, even in the UK? Some are saying the fences are much lower and could see the evidence on tv, really? Must have amazing vision to notice the one that were altered by a couple of inches, as for the spruce dressing, horses were always able to jump through the tops of the fences. When the issue of fences were being debated years ago I was one of the most vocal about lowering them, arguing that it may make them go quicker and cause more falls. Saturday appeared to have proved me wrong or maybe it was simply better horses with better qualification criteria, whatever, it worked, maybe not to the satisfaction of the die hards who prefer a bit of carnage. The bottom line is that the moaners and refuseniks are not important to the future of the race, those that watched last week are the future and a much bigger majority, a simple fact. |
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It's rather odd to see everyone harking back to the past and the Grand National yet no one mentions the time when the race almost disappeared from view altogether.
From wikipedia..... These developments were not sufficient for financial stability at Aintree. The racing calendar declined from the 1950s and 60s so that by the early 1970s it consisted of a single three-day meeting each year that included the Grand National. In addition, the stands and facilities had become notably dilapidated. When the Earl of Sefton sold the Aintree Racecourse to Tophams Ltd in 1949, he put a restrictive covenant in place that the land could only be used for agriculture or horse-racing during his life. (He died in 1972.) In 1963, Mirabel Topham, as chairman, initiated negotiations with Lord Sefton to have this covenant put aside so that the land could be sold for housing development. Over the next nine years this led to court cases, possible sales and repeated assertions that each Grand National would be 'the last at Aintree'. Although the covenant was upheld by the lower courts, an appeal to the House of Lords ruled in Topham Ltd's favour in 1966. Aintree was finally sold to the Walton Group owned by property developer William Davies in 1973.However, planning permission for new housing was never granted. The land remained a racecourse where the Grand National continues to be held. |
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The last sentence just sums you up. Always looking to knock everyone else, and put yourself on a pedestal. That's what you care about more than any race. The Grand National like any other topic just provides ammunition for you to try and do that. Must have taken some restraint to have only used moaning twice. You could have used commenting or criticising, but no that's not you. Ardent admirer of national hunt racing? Sorry, you are just an ardent admirer of yourself.
'Young boys sent up chimneys, rickets and scurvy'. What's that got to do with the prospect of the National becoming a total bore? You made an incorrect comment about fence size, but rather than admit getting it wrong, you are now questioning people's eyesight? You mention Red Marauder, a race run in terrible conditions. Perhaps if we compare Saturday's race with Crisp and Red Rum instead? |
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Get over yourself DD and at least provide some counter debate, if you are capable?
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Get over yourself DD and at least provide some counter debate, if you are capable?
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Exactly sparrow. It was almost gone as a racecourse at all, never mind the main race. Some people will never be happy or thankful for what we have. A bit like those pressure groups whose press releases get trotted out by every news outlet every day asking for more public money. Have you ever heard one say they are getting too much? The last 25 years will go down in history as the more more for me generation. Preferably from other peoples taxes.
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Changing the conditions of the race has done nothing to appease the animal charities, they trotted the line out that the GN meeting had 2 deaths and they want racing stopped.
They won't be happy until the race is banned |
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Of course the fanatics won't be happy, they never will be, but the point of the changes is to reduce the number of ordinary folk who support their point of view. If we reach a point where the majority of voters would like to see an end to horse racing it won't take long for it to go.
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As you have said sage, the course was almost lost and had it been so there were suggestions of it being held elsewhere. Had that happened would we have had a similar debate about it no longer being the same race? Probably imo and more reason for not recognising it in its old form than the debate today, worse still it could have been lost completely.
Also a legacy of Big Mac in saving it and the course which rarely gets a mention. |
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Ladbrokes CEO saved it from my recollection. Big Mac might have been a mouthpiece but I doubt if he put the money in.
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He was a big part in brokering the deals sage, as said rarely acknowledged.
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From the Racing Post .....
John McCririck’s influential role in saving the Grand National was fondly recalled on Friday by Lord Vestey, who labelled the former journalist and Channel 4 racing presenter as a "true lover of racing". Vestey and the Jockey Club had reached a difficult point in their negotiations to buy Aintree from Bill Davies, the controversial property tycoon who had put the racecourse up for sale in 1982, when McCririck stepped in to help arrange a meeting between the parties. McCririck’s persuasiveness and passion for Aintree and the Grand National was hugely important in convincing Davies to sell to the Jockey Club, according to Vestey, keeping the course out of the hands of those eyeing it for development and ensuring the world’s most famous race was not lost. “When the Jockey Club were trying to buy Aintree from Mr Davies we were having great difficulty getting hold of him,” said Vestey. “John knew Mr Davies and called me up and said, ‘Come on, let’s go see him’. It was John who got me in to see Mr Davies and we took it from there. Everyone at the Jockey Club was very grateful for what he did for us. “John really helped persuade Mr Davies that it was the right thing to sell to us. We had been desperately worried the course might be sold to developers and we’d lose the Grand National for good. John was his usual bombastic self in the meeting saying how Mr Davies couldn’t do this and mustn’t do that! It helped him to sell to us, I’m certain of that.” https://www.racingpost.com/news/obituaries/how-john-mccririck-helped-save-the-grand-national-a17Mp8o9JPRf/ |