Chris Cook article r.e. The National

https://www.racingpost.com/news/the-front-runner/has-the-grand-national-been-turned-into-another-cross-country-race-aHyrc3z5AWGj/

I did flag it on the other Grand National thread.

The race as we knew it is No more , It wont be coming back More chance of more Safety Changes , Like it or Lump it

I'm going to look forward to having a laugh at the current commentators and plenty others lauding the "success" and desperately still trying to put a positive spin on it when it is a 4 mile flat race with 20 still in contention at the elbow.

The article is pretty much where I am with it all, that's only due to the age I am and how many races I watched over the years.

It is now no more than a glorified cross country race as Chris Cook describes so well. The authorities are trying to eliminate risk, and that just isn't possible.

It's the risk that attracted us all in the first place, certainly played a massive part for my love of the sport. That doesn't mean you're a blood thirsty maniac that wants to see fatalities, far from it. This is the way the sports been going for a number of years and who knows where the race will be in another 10 years.

I keep getting told its the world we live in. It probably is but it still doesn't make it feel right.

It's the fantasy world that a tiny proportion of vocal people on SM demand. The opposite of the real one.

Turning for home last Saturday I was thinking this was just like a big sprint handicap. A 4m Ayr Gold Cup with some conifer to negotiate.

I fail to see why an extra 8 horses in the starting lineup, taking it back to 40, would have made any negative impact either.

It`s sad, it was always my favourite day of the year, better than my team being in the FA cup final, and like how most genuine national hunt fans have said this isn`t the Grand National we once knew and loved, the days of something out of the weights who was as slow as they come but always had a chance of winning the national are long gone, it started about 20 years ago to be honest with all the fence modifications and now I find watching Plumpton on a Monday afternoon more exciting !

It`s sad, it was always my favourite day of the year, better than my team being in the FA cup final, and like how most genuine national hunt fans have said this isn`t the Grand National we once knew and loved, the days of something out of the weights who was as slow as they come but always had a chance of winning the national are long gone, it started about 20 years ago to be honest with all the fence modifications and now I find watching Plumpton on a Monday afternoon more exciting !

Indeed. And yet the so called bookies' afficionados and racing experts eg Mr Chamberlin and Sir AP McCoy waxing lyrical and spouting it was the best Grand National they'd just witnessed.

If that was not merely pocket-talking the Pope is a Muslim or mad-Putin will be awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2024.

As it’s now never going to return to the butterflies in the tum race it once was, they may as well stop the kidding and build a brand new course, flat and galloping like Newbury. There’s ample room there and the Mildmay course is still sharpish, despite them ironing out the severity of that kink in the straight a couple of decades back. At the time the then COC made a comment similar to “ it will be similar to Newbury “,  which was nonsense as there wasn’t the room to make it ultra galloping. So rip both courses up and start again - they’ll still pull the crowds in, and you can still have a large field staying handicap on the Saturday with the title containing the word Grand National.

loved the Meeting Sporting , The 3 days over the Fences was summat Else , The Greyhound Derby my other Highlight of the Year has also gone to Shyte

As stated we had the Good times  and we have our Memories

The Grand National is supposed to be a unique and taxing race, but no more. It's a blooming glorified cross-country race. And, now the rich owners and mega-big trainers are calling the tune just like the bookies' dictating where, what time and how horseracing in the UK is run.

The filthy rich are buying up homes in idyllic places eg Cotswold, Cornwall, etc, as holiday homes denying the locals and their siblings of affordable accommodation in the area. Similarly and nationally, the foreigners some with their ill-gotten gains pillaged from their own countries buying up swathes of very expensive real-estate in Central London and stately homes in the countryside.

The UK has become so blinded by money regardless of the negativity it brings in the long term.

they will eventually close down the sport completely

1962 GN in colour.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTi2gOqsfuA

Great Race thanks Mac

Foinavon From Beechers in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ACj-kBBRpc

was a Fella in a pub I used to go to Could repeat Michael Oheirs Commentary Horse Name by Horse name and Practically Word for Word

And that was in the Late 70s

Thanks for that wonderful clip Case.

One of racing`s most greatest sporting moments for the wrong reasons, lol.

The Fossa always carried my tanner in the GN then and I think that was the only time he didn`t complete the course after he fell in the melee.

If my memory is correct, I`m pretty sure that the second, Honey End was owned by Gregory Peck? But it may have been another GN with Different Class?

.... nothing to do with the National but I remember two old geezers in the pub having a good argument about who played the lead role in Hitchcock`s film The Birds. One said Rod Taylor and other Cary Grant. It was getting out of hand and they asked me to adjudicate. "You`re both wrong", I said, "It was Gregory Peck"!

"Are you sure"?, they asked in unison.

"On second thoughts, it wasn`t him, it was Walter Pidgeon", I replied, "And I`m sure Anna Neagle played the lead female role"!

Everybody in the pub were laughing but the two old geezers didn`t get it, lol.

Me old man had a shilling ew for me On Red Aligator the following Year Mac ,I cant remember Getting Paid TBH

That was me hooked on the race ,He would also  always get me to watch when Arkle was running , Strangely he rarely had a bet

BBC coverage was fantastic for its Time , Will never be any better than Peter O'Sullevan  ...

Mind you never Mind the National have a look at the State Of the BBC ,fookin Ell

Great memories Case! I had a tanner on Red Alligator too when it won the next year!

I wish it had got beat, lol.

BBC produced some wonderful dramas over the years, now I don`t even watch it. Load of rubbish on it now.

Personally, I've never really got the whole GN thing, though of course watched it like everyone over the years when I was younger.

As a serious punter I really haven't cared that much about it, as it's just another race, and a long one. It was a promotion for the sport I guess, over the years. But more recent it became the exact opposite, something to attack racing for.

I don't really watch it that much in the past few years, and didn't even bet on it many years.

GN was a money making machine years ago. You could rule it down to 2 or 3 possible winners based on their jumping ability. Now it`s a Lottery. All have a chance. Many serious punters used to bet on the race but not now.

... it`s ran it`s course and will forever have a special place in NH Turf history but just another staying chase now. Mildmay course is more of a jumping test now. It`s time to scrap it now.

I reckon there will be no jump racing at all in a decade`s time, probably not even last that long.

Flat racing might last until 2050 if lucky before it`s scrapped too.

2 animal charities this year still asked for NH racing to stop even though there were no deaths in the race.
It's nothing to do with the GN, they just want to stop racing

Beginning of the end

Walked down to Beechers sad to see the new version of that iconic fence.
Also the pathetic brush hurdles on the way.

The problem with the anti view is that there is always some elements of truth in it - who on here is happy when they saw a horse killed in historical GNs - none of us of course.

That is stupidly then taken and exaggerated as reasons against all of racing by the antis. But for a neutral non-punter, it's easy to see the argument against.

What we need to realise is that the Antis, PETA etc have now infiltrated established animal charities like RSPB and more problematic for racing the RSPCA, Just look at the latest advert on TV for the RSPCA and you can see the influence these groups have now got in said charity.