a rethink on the conditions of entry for the grand national, please.

​When the Grand National fences were modified (to good effect), they also set about trying to attract a better-class of horse to the race by limiting top-weight to 11st 12 and compressing the handicap. Among the conditions for the race are that horses must have finished in the first four in a chase over a distance no shorter than 2-miles 7-furlongs and must have a minimum B.H.A. rating of 125.
Though I believe the alterations to the Grand National were a knee-jerk reaction to two separate accidents that led to the deaths of two horses, over-all it cannot be argued against that the race had to be protected from those who would have horse racing in its entirety abolished. The race conditions, though, need to be amended once more, or at least the B.H.A. and Aintree should sit down and discuss the matter.
Year by year, throughout the past decade, in my opinion, the quality of horse has declined, though I admit it is a beautiful sight to see the majority of the field flying over The Chair and heading out on the second circuit. Yet of the eight original entries at the top of the weights, as of today only two seem likely to line up on April 9th. Conflated, Galvin, Melon, Franco de Port, Tiger Roll and Chantry House are scratched, leaving Chris’s Dream as top weight on 11st 10Ibs, after a rise of 5Ib due to the withdrawal of the two originally allotted top weight. Minella Times is now second top weight with 11st 9Ibs, he too having endure a 5Ib hike. Remember he carried 10st 3Ibs last year. Has any winner of the race had to carry 20Ib more the following year? Next in the weights is Delta Work. Even if you discard his return to something like his old form in the Cheltenham Cross-Country recently, as a former Grade 1 winning chaser it strikes me as odd that the long-time between drinks Chris’s Dream should have to carry more weight.
Also, there are possibly half-dozen horses in the lower order that could be considered better prospects of at least giving a good show of themselves than many rated above them, who will be very fortunate to get a run. Something needs to be done to allow ‘Grand National’ types a greater opportunity to line-up. Thankfully the solution, after Nick Alexander’s spirited intervention, is in the public domain.
Nick Alexander suggested the first two in certain races should be parachuted into the race at the expense of higher rated horses. I agree wholeheartedly with his idea, though I believe five races should be selected as ‘win and you are in’ races. The races I would select are the previous season’s Irish and Scottish Nationals, the Becher Chase, the Welsh National and the Eider Chase. It should also be considered returning to one of the conditions of the past that any horse to have finished in the first four in previous Grand Nationals should also receive a ‘bye’ into the race. It should always be about getting the right horses into the race, not necessarily top-rated horses.
‘Win and you are in’ should, at least one would hope, entice higher rated horses into these races, with the Eider in dire need of returning to the days when the likes of Comply or Die won the race.
I doubt if he’ll run but it is against the ethos of trying to attract ‘a better class of handicapper’ if Blaklion, the first British-trained runner to finish in last year’s Grand National, and in great form this season, is denied the chance to become the first 13-year-old since Sergeant Murphy in 1923 to win the race, yet Samcro, a horse hopelessly out-of-form, can run in the hope the unique fences spark some life back into him. Blaklion has performed to good effect over the fences, whereas Samcro and many others are just shots in the dark.
The conditions for entry must be re-evaluated to take into account the suitability of a horse to stay the 4-mile plus distance, previous form over the fences – Chris’s Dream, by the way, has fallen twice around the Aintree fences – and horses running at the top of their ability given priority in some way over horses, like Samcro, whose form in recent times has gone south.
The Grand National is the single race jewel in British racing’s beautiful crown and those in charge of the race should not get into the mindset of believing all the garden is rosy since they quite rightly modified the fences and altered the distance. The B.H.A. and Aintree are custodians of a race with a history that can be traced back to 1839. In that time, we could have lost the race several times; its custodians should be mindful of the consequences to the entire sport if circumstances brought about its destruction due to a lack of diligence on their part.