THE RIGHT HORSES FOR THE RACE.

​I have heard the suggestion that there should be a ‘win and you are in the big race’ condition to the Becher Chase, no matter the handicap mark of the winner. This I instinctively feel is an idea of great merit and should be adopted without debate. I would extend the idea to any horse should also gain automatic entry to the Grand National, no matter its handicap mark on the day of the race, if it has both won over the National fences and proved its stamina by winning a chase of 3-miles or over. We need to ensure that the right type of horse runs in the race.
It is ridiculous that a horse with form figures that include two p’s and a ‘u’ is able to take part in our most prestigious race yet it is far from certain that last year’s third, Bless The Wings’, will get into the race. I might also take Gordon Elliott to task for allowing Blow By Blow to run as his form figures also contain two ‘p’s in his last three runs. Wouldn’t eleven runners be enough for him? As things stand, Gigginstown will have eight horses in the Grand National this year. Wouldn’t seven runners be adequate?
Until the last few days the connections of Walk In The Park, this season’s impressive Becher Chase winner, were no doubt fretting over whether their horse would creep into the race. He has, and will be quietly fancied by punters looking for a likely winner at long odds. The connections of Milansbar are less fortunate. He’ll certainly miss out this year. Perhaps the ground will be unsuitable for him, though that will be small comfort given how well he performed in last year’s race. Foolishly I thought his fifth-place last year coupled with his Warwick Classic win would have seen him given enough weight to get into the race this year.
It is my contention that the Grand National is not an ordinary horse race and the day-to-day handicap rules should not be applied to it. It is an extraordinary race, with no comparison throughout the season and the handicapper should seek to give proven Aintree horses every chance of making the cut by putting more emphasis on races run over the National fences and especially the big race itself. It would be justified if Milansbar, just to use him as an example, were given a rating for the National 5lb in excess of his rating for any other steeplechase.
Surely, if only for the public perception of horse welfare, it is better to have proven stayers and proven Aintree horses in the race rather than horses yet to win over 3-miles or indeed yet to win any steeplechase or a horse like Blow By Blow that has seemingly either lost his confidence over fences or is only running in the hope that either the fences or the Aintree atmosphere will spark renewed interest in him as it did in 1985 for Last Suspect.
As for what I will be backing this year, not that anyone should be overly interested given my poor record over the fifty or more years I have watched with awe and total fascination the spectacle I regard as the greatest sporting attraction in the world. At the unveiling of the weights back in February the two to catch my eye were Rock The Casbah and Ms Parfois. Unfortunately, the latter is a non-runner, leaving me with a horse carrying exactly the same weight that Tiger Roll carried last year. He is currently around 20/1, my sort of odds.
As with everyone else I find it almost impossible to look beyond Tiger Roll and in some small way I shall back him, probably to win. There has been no easier winner all season than Tiger Roll in the Cross-Country and if I am ever going to witness another back-to-back winner of the race it will be on Saturday. I feel it in my water that he’ll either win, go down fighting to a horse with 10st nothing on his back or he’ll get knocked over at the first or baulked at the Canal Turn. He does look, though, like the new Red Rum. Not that there could ever be another Red Rum as the Grand National of today is so far removed from the race it was in the mid-seventies as to make it a completely different steeplechase.
I am interested to find out which horse Ruby Walsh chooses. He rode Pleasant Company two seasons ago when the horse appeared not to stay, though he stayed on like a steam train running in need of the buffers last year. I suspect he is going to go for Rathlinden, which will make backing Pleasant Company far from easy. Ruby does get it wrong occasionally, though only occasionally.
My big outsider, and you will doubtless laugh out loud at the suggestion, is Valseur Lido. Until he faded in the last half mile, he ran a stormer last year, taking to the fences and running his best race in a long while. He’s in the Topham on Friday but I suspect 2mile-5-furlongs will be as too short as 4-mile 2 and a bit is too far. I hope Rachel Blackmore is on him – she is certainly not on any of the Elliott battalion – and I can see him finishing third or fourth behind Tiger Roll and Rock The Casbah.
Lastly, this is a poor renewal of the race, which is shameful given the £1-million prize money. Where o where are all the top-class horses we were promised when the race received its last make-over?