TimeformBlog

Our blogger Simon Rowlands the aftermath of Saturday's controversial race...

Saturday's Grand National is likely to be remembered by many who watched it not for the positive reasons that racing might wish but for the sight of the runners being waved round two horses - one dead under a tarpaulin, the other about to be despatched - and for the winner Ballabriggs seeming to be close to collapse at the end of the gruelling four-and-a-half mile race.

The hugely critical response from some sections of the public and non-racing press was only to be expected and needs to be taken seriously. Racing cannot expect to exist in isolation from the attitudes of wider society. No pastime can.

What took me much more by surprise were the responses of some within racing itself. These ranged from hysterical attempts of baffling illogicality to "put the animal-rights nutters straight" to sitting on one's hands and pretending nothing had happened.

The Racing Post tended towards the latter stance on the day after the race, helping to fuel the impression that racing was in denial, though it did rectify that somewhat subsequently.

Even more notable by their absence were the British Horseracing Authority, who seemed totally unprepared for the media firestorm. Instead, it was left in the first place to the likes of John McCririck and Brough Scott - both old-schoolers lacking in credibility - to "put racing's case" and effectively to pour further fuel on the fire.

Horseracing sometimes seems to be incapable of seeing itself as others see it or of responding to criticism other than by dismissing it as "ill-informed nonsense from do-gooders."

Contrary to what McCririck stated, all possible steps have not been taken to make the Grand National safer. A reduction in field size to something like 25 runners would belikely to lead to a reduction in non-completion percentages (about five times those for normal chases) and fatalities without taking much away from the spectacle.

A reduction in early speed through a shorter run to the first and a guarantee of slower ground early on might well do likewise. There is also the option of making some of the fences, which are still formidable, easier.

You do not need to be a "do-gooder" from without, or an apostate from within, to think that racing needs to avoid a repeat of Saturday's events - and the unsatisfactory response to them - or it is likely to pay the consequences of falling out of line with public opinion.

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