Now that the Grand National is an ordinary chase handicap race

They will if they keep getting hold of the best horses like they do now.

It will be a 4 and a half mile flat race in 10 years if the do gooders get their way

It will remain nothing but an ordinary handicap race unless drastic and meaningful changes are incorporated soon eg introduce qualification races; open up competitiveness by restricting multiple runners from high-profiled owners and trainers; stop tweaking fences to appease anti-horseracing outsiders; etc.

It is a shame Aintree (and therefore the Grand National) was saved in the 1970s.

What was this golden age of competitive Grand Nationals? 40 runners? Cross out the top 10 with too much weight, and the bottom 20 out of the handicap, so after 30 seconds work you were left with only ten runners with a realistic chance unless there was a Foinaven-type fiasco.

The race has already passed the point of no return and hasn't been run over 4 and a half miles since Jamie Stier reduced the distance. The soft fences will only encourage more dodgy jumpers to enter. The easy winner this year made plenty of mistakes according to Townend & Cobden.

They will have a job restricting owners/trainers to a certain number of runners in the race. That would be full of loopholes that trainers /owners will exploit.
I just wonder how long Aintree can hoodwink sponsors to pay so much for a seriously sub-standard race but with a Grand title.

Phil Smith sounded the death knell for the GN by pandering to the wealthy owners and trying to attract Gold Cup type horses who weren't suited to a gruelling test of jumping and stamina. What sort of clown gives a better class of horse an unfair advantage ? Bit like having Usain Bolt only give a 5 metres start to a guy he beats by 10 metres.

What about a ptp (point-to-point) Grand National? The present version is merely a glorified handicap infested by trainers/owners with multiple runners most of which should not be running given a distinct lack of ability or multiple failures previously.

Is the Czech version more taxing than our "National"? Little success even from Mr Mullins', I gather.

Reduce it by 2f and call it the Aintree Chase.

Re name all the fences with numbers.

Wont be breaking the trade descriptions act anymore.

A job for the trade description people if it remains as the Grand National in the near future. It has not been a Grand National for a few years now.

I can accept if it's renamed a National Aintree Chase.