death by a thousand cuts.

​Soon, sometime either at the end of January or the start of February, the initial entries for the Grand National will close and the day after they will be published in the Racing Post. For the majority of my life, I would scan the names of the entries with excitement at my heart. Many a time, a cold or drab winters’ day would be elevated by the names of a hundred or more horses who might, come early April, line-up for the greatest race in the world. This year, my interest will be no greater than first seeing the entries for the major races for the Cheltenham Festival.
We all know the names to expect in the list of possible runners for the Gold Cup, Champion Hurdle and other Grade 1 races. The entry of Stay Away Fay in the Gold Cup surprised me and A Plus Tard not being amongst the entries surprised me, yet everything else was as I expected to see. It will be the same with the Grand National entries in a few weeks. There might be a case of ‘I’m surprised to see that entered’ but all-in-all it will be a mixture of familiar names and those whose rating you know will not get them into the race. You know, the sound jumper, the dour stayer, the type of horse that in days gone by would be considered ‘National types’.
One of the consequences of raising the minimum rating for the race, aided and abetted by lowering the number of horses allowed to line-up, is to render the majority of the traditional trial races throughout the season rather pointless when it comes to the Grand National narrative. It is rather like turning all the classic trials on the flat into limited handicaps to make them more competitive to boost betting turnover. Even Aintree’s own Becher Chase is now irrelevant as a genuine trial for the Grand National. If the winner is rated lower than the necessary minimum required for entry it will be excluded from the ‘Grand National narrative’ even if it has winged around the course in the manner of a ‘true National prospect’.
Also, one of the consequences of continually upping the minimum rating for entry to the race is to render pointless the majority of races throughout the season traditionally considered to be Grand National trials. The Warwick Classic was building a reputation as one of the top ‘National’ trials of the season, yet on Saturday its name was not part of the ‘Grand National narrative’. The Eider was once upon a time considered a proper trial for Aintree, it is now been allowed to fall into the category of just another long-distance chase, on a par with the regional nationals that are now so populace in the racing calendar.
I fear the ‘Grand National narrative’ is being deliberately censored. I fear the race is being run-down in the manner of a frog that doesn’t know it’s being boiled alive as the temperature of the water is slowly but surely raised. I fear Aintree and the B.H.A. have a cunning plan to eventually do away with the race as it no longer fits the puzzle that is woke politics and societal reform.
At the moment, the Grand National is not so much a great sporting event as a cash-cow for Aintree, Jockey Club Holdings and the B.H.A. and is being overly protected to maintain profit, not to make it safe for posterity. 
For over sixty-years the Grand National has enthused me and given me the greatest pleasure of my life. In my racing library I have at least five books on the subject, with Reg Green’s ‘A Race Apart’ perhaps my most valued book. In my seventieth-year, I actual hope this year’s race is my personal last as I cannot bear to think my last few years will coincide with the eventual death of the race. I nearly cried when the race was lost to Covid and all that nonsense and I was furious when the race was voided due to the sport’s inability to get a horse race started in an orderly manner. Now, I am just saddened beyond words can fully articulate by what is being done to the race by those who should be standing shoulder-to-shoulder to protect its glorious heritage.