a final word or three on the grand national 2022.

​Much is said in the media, and by trainers, at how the class of runners in the Grand National has risen in recent years. It remains, though, very much a handicappers race, with no pretence of being anything other than a Grade 3 chase. Go back to Red Rum’s day and you will find more than one Gold Cup class horse running, and, in the case of L’escargot, winning. The aspiration of the Aintree executive when the fences were modified, the distance reduced and the handicap manipulated, was to encourage a better class of horse to be entered. Well, they get entered but rarely ever run.
On Saturday, although in the race card it said Minella Times would carry 11st 10Ibs, with the 3Ib ‘covid and 3Ib back protector allowance, he was actually burdened with 12st 2Ibs, a weight greater than even Red Rum was expected to carry. How is the imposition of such a burden going to encourage owners and trainers to run their best horses in the race? If anything, this ‘hidden penalty’ will only discourage the participation of the Gold Cup class horse.
Surely, for this one race, for the good of the Grand National’s reputation, both the covid and back protector allowance could be jettisoned. With it being highly unlikely any horse will run in a Grand National off 10st in the future, it must be prejudicial to the cause to impose this 6Ib penalty.
I was also surprised to see how easily the Aintree fences fell apart on Saturday, with some of the fences seemingly – viewed from a comfortable sofa, I admit – smaller than would be found at any Park course. This policy of verging on the side of caution did not prevent two fatalities on Saturday, even if one injury was not fence-related and the other a freak head injury I believe to be a rare occurrence. As Ruby Walsh advised when changes to the race was first mooted, to slow the race down the fences need to be higher, not smaller. Not that I am suggesting they should go back to the way the fences were constructed back when he won on Hedgehunter. In fact, until this year I considered they had the situation about right. But from a welfare point of view, the 2022 renewal was a bitter pill to swallow.
Horse racing is a dangerous sport to both horse and rider and on the flat and over the jumps. It cannot be made safe. Horses, sadly, suffer fatalities and injuries in their stable, in the field at grass, on the roads, on the gallops, as well as on the racecourse. The death of any horse cannot be accepted as a normal course of events, and it will never be easy to defend such tragedies to our distractors. It is what it is; the black side of an otherwise pure white sport. As long as all horses, whether in or out of training, are well-cared-for, both when racing and in retirement, fatalities and injuries can be logged as accidents. Neglect and cruelty, on the other hand, must never be thought of acceptable and punishment for the guilty must always be severe.
On Saturday, Noble Yeats was a good winner. The 2nd is a genuine Grand National horse who would make an equally good winner of the race. The 3rd and 4th have run in Gold Cups and Grade 1’s and give the form a solid appearance. And there is no doubting the validity of the Waley-Cohens being truly deserving of their victory. Robert Waley-Cohen’s dedication to the sport is long-lived and his son will go down in the history of the sport as one of its finest, if not the finest, amateurs to have graced the turf. At 40-years of age he bows out with a Grand National, a Cheltenham Gold Cup, two King Georges and six other wins around the Aintree fences. Can any amateur, in Britain or Ireland, match his achievements? I doubt it. The pressure will on the rider who must fill his boots at Aintree next year.
I very much doubt Sam Waley-Cohen will visit this site as he has too much on his plate but I hope one day soon he will sit down and pen his autobiography. His is an interesting story, I am sure, both in and out of the saddle.
And finally, you wouldn’t think the 3-mile handicap chase on Saturday had anything in common with Grand National, would you. Yet bizarrely they are both Grade 3 races. One a handicap that might be seen on any Saturday, the Grand National the most famous race in the world. Bit of a nonsense that, don’t you think?