​The best sight of the weekend was seeing Broadway Boy walking into the horsebox to begin his journey back to the Cotswolds. It was with some relief, I can tell you, when I heard that he had survived his awful fall at Valentines. It is also pleasing to hear that Celebre D’Allen is on the road to recovery, though I wish we could be told exactly what the problem was with the horse.
Although I fully understand why the majority of racing people are content with the changes to the race as no one wants to see horses put into unnecessary danger, though I will never agree that lowering the number of runners makes the race ‘safer’ for horse and jockey, given that anyone who agrees with that progression can only believe that if 34 is safer than 40, then 30 must be safer than 34. I wish that everyone would agree to admitting that the Grand National is no more and that what we have is a replacement race that saves the cash-cow from extinction. Also, during the season there are a multitude of races for the top handicappers. The Grand National used to be a race that gave the not so good handicappers a chance of immortality and it is this aspect that I mainly grieve for.
It was great to see Nick Rockett looking so spritely out in a paddock on Sunday morning. He also looked pleased with himself, and so he should.

In the ‘Another View’ portion of today’s Racing Post, Peter Thomas explains – I hope Matt Chapman reads it – why horses and jockeys who get things wrong, as in falling off at the last or a horse falling when looking like the winner, are not unlucky. They have failed to get the job done, as Constitution Hill has done the last twice. I agree with the wily and wise Peter Thomas. You simply cannot compare the achievements at the moment of Constitution Hill with what Night Nurse, Persian War, Sea Pigeon, Sir Ken or Monksfield accomplished. In time, perhaps. But not now.

Sad to see the retirements of Alan Johns and Nick Scholfield, two fine jockeys and assets of the sport. The former is going into the media industry and the latter is to embark on a training career. The good thing is that both of them will remain in the industry.

This leads me into how the sport needs to promote itself. As someone who is from a working-class background and who lives a long way outside of any of our racing hotspots, with no one in my sphere of influence who cares one jot about the sport, I can assure anyone reading this that the general public’s perception of our sport can be summed-up in two words – Royal Ascot.
The horse racing industry may be underpinned by the wealthy and the fabulously wealthy but at every other level this is a working-class sport as for anyone to be successful at the highest or middle-level they have to work their socks-off. This sport should not be defined by Royal Ascot but by Bangor-on-Dee or Redcar.
Firstly, we must demonstrate how well horses are cared-for in the sport, the retired as well as those who remain in active service. Jockeys must be seen as horse-lovers and horse-carers and we should stop using a mega-horn as if somehow seven-figure purchase prices elevate the sport above all other sports. Money, money ,money, when it is going in the opposite direction to most of humanity, is like Queen Antoinette telling the poor to eat cake if they cannot find any bread to eat.
People like Alan Johns, who already promotes the sport on social media, are key. Positivity, fun, love and care, are what needs to be promoted, not expensive millinery but the horse first, second and last. The horses are both the bread and butter of the sport and its cherished stars. And in this world of hardship for so many, prize-money must be capped so the majority do not get to believe that the big money only goes to the elites. It is all about perception. Royal Ascot does not represent what this sport is all about.

It is also not good on the eye if the sport is dominated by one jockey, one trainer or one owner. After training the first three, plus the fifth and seventh, in the Aintree National, Willie Mullins had a 1, 2, 3, 4. 5, in the Grade 2 novice hurdle at Fairyhouse on Sunday. One can only stand in awe at the achievements of Willie Mullins but for someone on the outside looking in, it is not a good look.

Patrick Mullins is not an amateur in any sense of the word. He is a classy rider, as proved on Saturday, as are so many amateur riders at the moment, especially in Ireland. Is it not time we ditched the amateur category and just differentiate jockeys by the class of riding licence they hold? Some riders might have a licence that restricts them to point-to-points, others a licence which would allow them to also ride in Hunter Chases, bumpers and amateur races, with some having a licence which allowed them to ride in conditional or opportunity races as they are called in Ireland. While the likes of Patrick Mullins and Derek O’Connor, to name but two, would be allowed to ride, and to be paid, to ride alongside professionals, but only when they ride against professionals, their opportunities limited by their weight, their licence would allow them to hop between point-to-points and the professional side of the sport. Obviously, riders who hold a professional licence would also be allowed to ride in point-to-points if they wished.
I cannot see how Mullins and O’Connor can be termed ‘amateur’ when their ability in the saddle makes them the equal of our top professional riders.

​Although I.T.V. cannot really be faulted for their coverage of yesterday’s Aintree National, I did find it wearisome and annoying when they constantly interrupted coverage of the horses in the parade ring and on the way to the start to show glammed-up race-goers, trumpeters (why) bookmakers and pointless interviews with connections. I want to get an understanding of how the horses are taking proceedings, whether a horse is sweating or jig-jogging, the sheen of its coat.
I also dislike the fourth, third, second, procedure that comes before presentation of the trophies to the winning connections. They will be handing out bronze, silver and gold medals soon, just to give the ceremony an air of Olympiana.
If you believe in the warm weather crisis, you will no doubt believe that every Aintree National till the cold weather crisis is announced will be run under clear skies and a sweltering sun. It was warm yesterday, though I doubt the temperature rose above 20-degrees, which is far from hot. I do feel though that the needs of the media are being put before the much- proclaimed welfare of the horses. The ground was safe yesterday, though whether it was good or good-to-soft only the jockeys can say, and no amount of water sprayed on to the track the evening and night before will prevent good-to-soft drying out to good by mid-afternoon, especially if there is the sort of hooley blowing as there was yesterday.
Traditionally, as least when the B.B.C. televised the race, off-time 3 pm and I believe we need to go back to an earlier start time as a precaution against artificially watered ground drying out to the point where there is no soft in the description as the race being run.
The race itself. Unlike last year, the race rode more like a National of old, with the runners spread-out and with a few thrills and spills on the way round. I was concerned after the race for the well-being of Broadway Boy who took a bad fall at Valentines after jumping for fun until that point. Tom Bellamy ended-up in hospital and I feared worse for the horse, believing he had suffered a broken back, which proved not to be the case. He walked into the horse ambulance and I will have my fingers crossed for him until I receive better news than he is being accessed.
I also feared for Kandoo Kid as I thought he was lame when he rose to his feet after falling at the fence before Bechers. It might be he was caught-up in the reins and he did look sound when Harry Cobden led him off the track.
The 13-year-old Celebre D’Allen, off the course since November, ran a stormer, in the front rank between the third and second-last until running out of steam and eventually being pulled-up after the last. He, too, was being assessed by vets on the course, causing the following race to be delayed. He also walked into the horse ambulance. Again, crossed-fingers for his speedy recovery.
The race itself: I was left empty rather than exhilarated at race end. Patrick Mullins winning for his father was a brilliant result and I cannot wait for how Patrick describes his day when he puts pen to paper for the Racing Post tomorrow. The wind, though, was sucked out of my sails by the Closutton domination. Magnificent achievement, obviously, to train the first three home, an achievement never achieved in the 176-year history of the race. But to run six-horses and have five of them finish in the top seven is a clear example of how the democracy of the race is now replaced by the elitism of the super stable.
As with most of the experts, I got most things wrong in my pre-race thoughts on the race. I did get Intense Raffles right as he disliked both the ground and the fences, and after watching his school over a ‘national fence’ on the Curragh, where he jumped high rather than slickly, I was not surprised.
I also suggested that Paul Townend might choose Nick Rockett over I Am Maximus, Nick Rockett being, in my poor summation, the best of the Mullins horses, when in fact he was one of five who were best of the entire field, with one exception, Iroko.
Hyland never got into the race. Hewick gave it a good go and I just had the suspicion that over this extreme trip he might have preferred slightly more cut in the ground if only to have slowed-up the Closutton contingent. Bravemansgame loved the place, only to run out of stamina entering the straight.
Iroko (also Three Card Brag) is obviously the horse to take out of the race when it comes to thinking about next year’s renewal, though the line of travel suggests that tipping any British-trained horse is a waste of energy, as would be any horse not trained by Willie Mullins.
It is said that life is cyclical and what goes around eventually comes around. Personally, I cannot see the Willie Mullins domination of the sport ending any year soon.
Oh, one thought of mine that has proved disappointingly accurate was my warning that Dan Skelton was not necessarily home and hosed for the trainers’ championship. After the National, having won the bulk of the prize-money, Mullins is only a little over £100,000 in arrears and unless Skelton gets himself on the money-train over the next few weeks all the Closutton maestro has to do is win either the Scottish National next weekend or the old Whitbread and the fat lady will be singing arias outside Willie’s bedroom window in a few-weeks time.

​The Top Novice Hurdle, sponsored by Trust-a-Trader, at Aintree yesterday, proved beyond all doubt that the best procedure for starting a horse race is to line-up the horses within whispering distance of the starter. The evidence, my lord, was right there before our very eyes. The jockeys lined-up, the starter whispered ‘now, my sweeties get going ready or not,’ he flicked the switch, the tape went up and the race was off to a fair and just start. No swearing, no complaints.
Compare, my friends, to the start of the Topham.
I rest my case.

You may well be of the opinion that the Mildmay novice Chase – I will not attempt to give it is full title as it the length of this aside – that the race fell apart when Dancing City fell, brought down his stable-mate and brought Handstands to a stand still, and you may not rate Jordans as highly as his connections, but I thought Caldwell Potter was impressive again. At Cheltenham it was his jumping that caught my eye. At Aintree it was his heart. You can add ‘battle’ to his prime attributes of jumping like a bunny and his ability to gallop full-steam-ahead. I love him, and not just because he has proved my judgement worthy. I said from the very start of his chasing career that he was not a 2-miler but a stayer. Whether he is a true Gold Cup horse is open for debate. But if he has a good summer and comes in next autumn a stronger horse and his feet stop giving problems, he might be a King George horse, though I doubt he would have the speed, though the better ground normally found at Kempton on Boxing Day would be right up his street. And Cobden was wrong for a change; Caldwell Potter does have Grade 1 class. He proved that yesterday.
The race may have fallen apart for Jonbon in the Melling, though less so than the Mildmay and if Nicky Henderson has a problem called Constitution Hill, then Willie Mullins has a similar problem with a horse called El Fabiolo. Although the former, I believe, should now go novice chasing, it might do El Fabiolo good, in the short term, to have a spin over hurdles. And with both I would make the running. I also wonder if going 3-miles over fences might help El Fabiolo’s hit or miss jumping style.
As for Jonbon. The King George would be intriguing for him next season, though I cannot believe Nicky Henderson deciding to that route. I would certainly give-up on the 2-mile Champion Chase in favour of the Ryanair next season, especially if Fact To File is given the chance of winning the Gold Cup. I would like to see Jonbon tackle the 3-mile Bowl at Aintree next season. He has his knockers but who would not want to own Jonbon, a horse unbeaten everywhere bar Cheltenham. The facts do not lie. Or is that the camera never lies?

Now, there is a race today that we would like to think will stop the nation. My initial response when the weights for the Aintree National were first announced was that Intense Raffles would likely be the winner. He is reasonably weighted at 10st 10Ibs, jumps well and should almost certainly stay the distance. 
Now, I am much better at sighting the winner of the Aintree National, especially when it was a grander race, than I am at actually winning money at the race. Rule The World was the real sickener. I had the race down to five-horses, with a view to backing four of them. Yes, due to the perfectly reasonable reckoning that horses that have never won a chase do not win around the National fences, I crossed out his name. Seagram was the other non-winner for me. Due on this occasion to work taking longer than anticipated to get finished and given the distance I lived from a betting shop – well, you know the rest.
My reason for stepping away from Intense Raffles is the ground. If you believe he will be equally suited to good ground as he is with soft ground, stay loyal. He may only win once on good ground and today may well be that day. I though will remain with the idea of the miracle of never-has-won-a- national-of-any-sort Nicky Henderson training an Aintree National winner. Hyland to win from Hewick and Bravemansgame. Proper experts try to name the first four home but I find it too exhausting to come up with three from the 34, so I will leave the complication of the fourth one home to everyone else.

This day used to be my ‘holy day’, a day beyond all others. And though I may give the impression my life has been cut in half by the neutering of the race, by removing the romance and sheer derring-do from the race, National Day remains, for me, the best day of the year. It is simply not ‘holy’ in the revered sense anymore. As always, my main hope for the day is that every horse running in the race returns home to its stable. I want that more than visiting the local bookmaker to pick-up whatever small amount I won on the race.

​Apparently, in the aftermath of Constitution Hill starting his sequence of hitting the deck, the great but not the greatest horse was espied by Barry Geraghty jumping one of Cheltenham’s steeplechase fences. Was he making a statement to his trainer that he wanted to try his hooves at the big boy’s game?
Geraghty, in a gesture of wanting to be helpful, suggested to Nicky Henderson that it might help Constitution Hill concentrate his mind more fully on the race at hand if he were to be schooled over fences. It seems since Cheltenham Nicky has tried everything bar schooling the horse over fences, which suggests, given the horse has fallen again in the same way he contrived to get himself on the floor the previous time, that schooling over fences could not possibly make the problem worse even if it does not make things any better.
What I took from the interview with Nicky Henderson after the race yesterday was that Nico de Boinville thought they should proceed with their plan to go to Punchestown ‘as the hurdles over there would suit the horse better than the English versions’. That statement suggests to me that the problem will not be easily solved if the problem is the English-style hurdles. As always, I hesitate to put forward my solution when Nicky Henderson is so often proved right in whatever approach he decides to take to any difficulty, but if I were to be asked my opinion, I would suggest not running at Punchestown in favour of an extensive period of schooling over fences as preparation for a chasing career from next season onwards. The horse was bought as a prospective chaser, Nicky Henderson said after his first win over hurdles that ‘he was a chaser in the making’ and if they opt-out of fences for Constitution Hill now he will never get the chance to attempt to achieve what he was bought to achieve. Yesterday he had what might be described as a thundering fall that might well have killed him. I am not saying that risk will be lessened by going chasing, but once a horse begins to fall on a regular basis, and 2 out of 2 is the making of a regular occurrence, the confidence of the horse will lapse and the confidence of the jockey in the horse will go, too.

Did Richard Hoiles say ‘the next fence is the Chair’ or words to that effect during the Foxhunters? I may have missed him mentioning the approach of the Chair fence as I do not have great powers of concentration. But if he did not, is this another indication that the Aintree fences have lost their identity? Of all of the iconic fences at Aintree, the Chair is the only one I have had any problem with, and that is more in mind with the Foxhunters and the Topham where it comes too early in the race for jockey and horse to have collected themselves into a nice, steady rhythm. The height of the fence is not the problem but the length. Whereas the third fence, Bechers and Valentines are wide enough to accommodate the Charge of the Light Brigade, the Chair is the same height but much narrower, with less space for manoeuvring to find space or the perfect stride. Yesterday only the easily likeable David Maxwell came to grief at the Chair and it is not a rarity these days for every horse, even in the National, to scale its summit without incident.
I just think if commentators are no longer naming the iconic fences in the course of their work it is a clear indication that Aintree has lost its reputation as the hardest test of both steeplechaser and jockey.

The Grand National of my birth was in 1954. Oh, an interesting fact that I hope visitors to this site were, as I was, unaware is that the Mildmay course at Aintree, named after the popular amateur rider Lord Mildmay-White, the man who introduced the Queen Mother to the sport, was first used in December, 1953.
The 1954 renewal of the race was staged on March 27th, 19-days before I came crying and screaming into this world. I no longer cry, though I often scream, especially at starters for the pathetic procedure they employ for starting a horse race.
The race provided Vincent O’Brien with the middle leg of his incomparable record of three straight Grand National victories, started by Early Mist and completed by Quare Times. Royal Tan scrapped home by a neck from Tudor Line. There were 9-finishers.
There were only 29-starters in 1954. 3-fell at the first and another 3 at the second. So much for fewer runners providing a safer race! Worse was to follow. Of the 29 only 25 arrived home afterwards. 3-horses, the favourite Coneyburrow (ridden by Pat Taaffe), Legal Joy and Paris New York suffered fatal injuries from their falls and Dominck’s Bar dropped down dead at some point.
I merely researched the 1954 Grand National as it was the year of my birth. A stab in the dark, if you wish. Yet here, I take no pleasure in reporting on equine deaths, especially at Aintree, is evidence that field size does not have much to do with equine fatality. 4 dead out of field size of 29. Yet in 1929, when no less than 66 faced the starter, they was only 1 fatality and in 1947, when 57 started, there were no fatalities.
Make what you will out that random statistic.

​No doubt over the course of the next three-days at Aintree an I.T.V. presenter will assure viewers how important equine welfare is to the sport. Viewers will be informed of how many vets will be in attendance and how each horse is inspected on the morning to ensure they are fit to compete, sort of implying either that some trainers are prepared to run an unfit horse or some are without the expertise to notice if one of their horses is lame, coughing or under the weather. And then there are the troughs of water and the buckets of water that will be thrown over the winner of the Aintree National, demonstrating the commitment the sport has to horse welfare. It is all done in the best possible taste, though it does beg the question why the procedures at Aintree are not mandatory at every race-meeting.
Incidentally, the throwing of water over a horse’s kidneys and hind quarters is, to my way of thinking, more likely to be detrimental on some occasions to the health of the horse through winter, than beneficial. Chilled kidneys is a very real thing, it is why horses wear quarter-sheets in the parade ring and why Venetia Williams uses that clip-trace on all of her horses.
Anyhow. In today’s Racing Post there is a splendid article by Sally Taylor, head of equine regulation, safety and welfare at the B.H.A. highlighting the breakthroughs in the early discovery of injury and heart conditions with the use of A.I.. Using Swedish software something referred to as SLEIP is used in pre-race trot-ups and is being trialled on every horse due to run at Aintree this week.
Lameness can change from day-to-day, sometimes by the stride or over a long time-period. Using an App on a phone, vets can detect the very earliest stages of lameness, which can prevent a horse suffering injury during a race. The App also records high quality videos, providing slow-motion views of a horse’s gait which can be used for comparison throughout the life of each horse.
Also, Sally Taylor is particularly excited by the Racing Risk Model Project which uses complicated mathematical models to allow vets to understand where the greatest area of risks may be. There are wearable devises that record heart-rate and rhythm, stride length and conduct E.C.G.’s while the horse is being exercised. There is also a project to understand how tendon boots raise the temperature of the horse’s leg and whether they help or hinder the problem of strike injuries.
This is why the Racing Post is such fabulous read. Sally Taylor’s article was directly under a Richard Forristal piece on the trainers’ championship race in Britain. You never know what lies in store for the reader upon turning each page. More of it, I say.

What must it be like to know you are on the verge of being £500,000 better-off? Only Harry Skelton can tell you and he will be too busy over the next few days ensuring he is the beneficiary of the windfall, or should that be Gale Force Ten-fall? I just hope he makes a generous donation to the Injured Jockeys Fund and to an equine rehabilitation centre.

Can Dan repel the Irish man? I am not so sure 1/10 on reflects the absolute certainty others think him to be. Firstly, I believe Nicky Henderson will win his first National on Saturday and that will take a big chunk out of Skelton’s lead of £800,000. He also has Constitution Hill, Jonbon, Jango Baie and Lulamba this week and at least one of them should win, with the others all likely to pick-up a good chunk of prize-money. Without winning the Aintree National I cannot see how Paul Nicholls can claw his way to the top, though I fully expect Caldwell Potter to win the opener today. Then there the cool hand gunslinger who goes by the name of Willie. Not really interested in retaining his title, yet sending more horses to Aintree than any of his rivals. 1.3-million in arrears, yet with 5 horses in the big race, all of which have realistic chances of galloping and jumping their names into Aintree and horseracing history. Win the Aintree National and 1.3-million becomes £800,000 and with a hatful of winners through the week, perhaps, and with Sandown and Ayr to come – well, he did it last year, though if he pulls the rabbit out of the hat this time, the margin of victory will be a lot less than the £300,000 he triumphed by last year.
That said, Dan Skelton only needs to win one of the Grade 1’s this week to make Willie’s task that bit more difficult. There will a mountain of joy from the master of Lodge Farm if either Grey Dawning or Protektorat win this week. With Protektorat the more likely.

​I was never a major supporter of Best Mate. I recognised that he was a top-class racehorse and I admired, though at the same time was frustrated, by the overly-cautious manner in which he was campaigned. Overall, though, the magic was more to do with the love-affair of the two lovable old codgers that trained him and less about the quality of horse he beat in his three Gold-Cups. Of the horses to have won more than one Gold Cup, I would only put Al Boum Photo below him in the list.
My feelings are going in a similar direction with Constitution Hill. I have no doubt he is top-class and he has been trained to perfection by Nicky Henderson. Yet is it appropriate for commentators and journalists to refer to his ‘legacy’ and to place his name alongside horses of the past who ran more often than he has and who won far more races than he is likely to win in his career.
People are hooked to his Supreme win and his single Champion Hurdle success and refuse to access the quality of horse he has subsequently beaten. It is a case of recency bias, with people, even racing journalists, blinkered when it comes to the champions of the golden age of hurdlers back in the late 1970’s though to the middle of the 1980’s.
Istabraq ruled the roost for 4-years and no one could argue that his haul of 3 Champion Hurdle crowns would have been 4 if it were not for the foot and mouth outbreak that denied him his fourth victory. Persian War, Night Nurse, Monksfield and Sea Pigeon (perhaps the greatest dual-purpose horse of my lifetime) achieved far more than Constitution Hill has so far achieved. 
In the next six-weeks we will have a far clearer handle on whether Constitution Hill can lay claims to a ‘legacy’. First, he must dispatch Lossiemouth with the greatest of ease over 2-mile 4-furlongs at Aintree tomorrow and then he must do the same to State Man and Golden Ace at Punchestown. If he fails to live-up to the hype that surrounds him over the next few weeks, it may well be novice chasing for him next season.

For a young man to have achieved so many Grade 1’s victory as Jack Kennedy might suggest he has had all the luck in the world driving him forward. Yet Jack Kennedy has achieved all his Grade 1’s despite the fates doubling down on their ambition to deny him any success. Perhaps even Jack can no longer list the entirety of his injuries, though we know he has broken six legs, which is a fete in itself.
This time around he is being extra cautious and extra sensible and given himself until ‘before Galway’ before coming back after his injury scare caused by State Man’s head coming into contact with his recently, though perhaps not, healed broken leg and his fall from the luckless Corbett’s Cross in the Gold Cup.
Now, nobody should ever say this when Jack is within earshot but whereas we believe that National Hunt jockeys are made of special stuff, perhaps Jack is made from the wrong stuff. Or perhaps it is simply that the gods are jealous of his talent and the success he continues to have despite all their successes with their slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune.

I am not fancying Stumptown, Iroko or I Am Maximus for the Aintree National. The former is an improving horse and he should stay and he will certainly jump but does he have the form in the book to win a competitive and good-quality Aintree National? Although a good jumper of park fences, I have my doubts that Iroko will jump round on Saturday. I also have my doubts about his stamina. Of the three I have mentioned, he is the one who I fear might prove me wrong. I admit that I Am Maximus was a revelation last year and though appreciably wrong 12-months ago, this year the faster ground might contribute to him taking or two by the roots this time around. Personally, I would not be surprised to see Paul Townend’s name against that of Nick Rockett come Saturday.

​Personally disappointed, as well as disappointed for the race, that Bryony Frost has had to be loyal to her commitments in France on Saturday and the ride on Stay Away Fay now goes to Jonathan Burke, an exceptional jockey but neither as pretty as Miss Frost nor as charismatic or as popular with the public.

Because the majority of horses running in the Aintree National on Saturday will be trained by the powerhouse stables -22 of the 34 are trained by either Mullins, Elliott, de Bromhead, Cromwell, Nicholls or Henderson – the question of whether any one trainer should be limited in the number of horses they can run in any one race has risen above parapet once more. A closed shop is no good to anyone.
Although I believe, for the benefit and ultimate survival of the sport, something radical must be attempted to level the playing field, limiting a trainer to 3, 4 or 5-runners in one of the iconic races would be unfair, as any rule would be that punishes the hard work required to reach the summit of a profession.
That said, as with races restricted to conditional, amateur, apprentice and even, as was, female jockeys, which obviously allows opportunity and also benefits the sport in the long term, a restriction on the number of horses any one trainer can have in his or her care, although unfair, might be considered as an experiment for a limited number of years, as I believe this would give the greatest help to the greatest number of people, while at the same time improving competitiveness and solve the problem of staffing levels in racing stables both in Ireland and Britain.
The maximum number allowed is problematic, as some trainers have 200 or more horses at their disposal, though as this is more a National Hunt problem than a flat problem, I would suggest 125 would be the right sort of number to limit any one trainer to having in his or her stable.
No staff member laid-off by a trainer due to a decrease in horses trained by his or her employer would find any difficulty in securing new employment, if it is true that trainers’ major difficulty is finding experienced stable staff.

People, and by people, I mean racing journalists, are finally waking-up to the truth that the conditions for running in the Aintree National are not fit for purpose. Although Mr. Vango is not a good choice as an example of a horse who should be taking part on Saturday as he would not run even if enough horses came out between now and Friday as he needs soft-ground at the very least and the ground will undoubtedly be closer to good than good-to-soft come start-time, a horse now rated 151 should at least have the opportunity of running.
Personally, I would have four win-and-your-in races during the season – the Becher Chase, the old Hennessey and the Welsh and Midland Nationals – and I would allow horses to rise in the weights if their ratings are raised between publication of the weights and the 5-day declaration stage. This would encourage trainers to run in the 4 run-and-in-your-in races and to generally run more often in hope of raising the rating of a horse entered for the race. For example, if the handicapper raises a horse by 4Ibs during the period between publication of weights and the 5-day declaration, that horse will rise by the same amount for the National. With, for fairness, the reverse also coming into force. As I have said many times, now echoed by racing professionals, the Aintree National needs the right horses running in it, not horses with no form but an out-dated high rating.

Alan Sweetman, in the Racing Post today, is critical of prize-money allocation in Ireland, believing maiden races at Leopardstown at the weekend should have had a far larger prize-pot than the handicaps on the card. He may have a point in certain circumstances but if he is making the point that the sport should be grown from the top-down, I heartily disagree with him. Whether you are building a house or growing a carrot, it is always best to think ground upwards. We need more owners and the majority of people who own a horse or a share in a horse are not in the millionaire category and the more of them who either break-even at the end of the season or more unlikely make a profit, the more of them will stay in the sport for the long haul. To my mind, maidens are a step along the way to bigger things, much like bumpers in National Hunt, and as such prize-money should be far less than handicaps. If I had my way, any race that had a six-figure first prize last season should be capped at the same level for three or more years, with all races at the lowest level having an incremental prize-money increase over the same period. A Derby worth half-a-million to the winner would not get a larger and more competitive number of runners if prize-money was doubled, would it?

Unless I lose one or more of the following 4-horses twixt now and Saturday, my picks are Hyland to win, Hewick, Intense Raffles (slightly worried the ground might prove too quick for him) and Bravemansgame. And it takes a brave man to tip a Nicky Henderson trained horse to win a National, any national, regional, county, Irish, Scottish or Aintree National.

​I am, as anyone who regularly visits this site will be aware, highly critical of the changes to the National course and to the conditions of entry to the race itself. I admit my response is heavy with emotion, with an equally heavy tilt towards the glory days of Red Rum and the all the heroes that went before him. Also, I do not like the world in which we live in, constructed as it is by politicians engaged in carrying out the ambitions of the unelected, the multi-rich and the shady elite.
As I recently wrote, if Aintree had displayed the courage to announce the Grand National, the last proper ‘National’ being 2012 in my opinion, was to be sacrificed and that henceforth a new race would take its place, the race we have now, I would have accepted the decision far more easily and with better grace than I have done with changes to the race that make it no more than a poor facsimile of tradition and history. It is why I will refer to historic runnings of the race as ‘Grand Nationals’, while I will continue to refer to the race on Saturday and post 2012 as the Aintree National.
I dislike the short-sighted testimony of journalists of better renown and competence than I could ever hope to emulate that times have changed and we, especially the National, should change with it. The Welsh Government have banned greyhound racing in the principality, does that mean the Welsh wind-change should be copied in this country, with all our greyhound stadiums shut-down, demolished and the greyhound breed allowed to fall into extinction?
And if the National course must be mutilated in order to nullify the possibility of equine deaths, which would require an act of God to prove successful, why do the very same journalists who believe the sport should change with the times not argue that all National Hunt courses should be similarly neutered to nullify possible equine deaths?
Let me go on record here: an equine death sickens my heart. Corbett’s Cross losing his life in the Gold Cup this year ruined the race for me, even though I accept that such events cannot be eliminated. There is, I believe, an unwritten contract between the horse and those charged with its care. It is simply that the horse must be cared for as if it is royalty, given all it needs to enjoy life, and in exchange the horse will be asked to take part in races for ‘our’ enjoyment. It is why cruelty to a horse should never be forgiven, why those guilty of such acts of inhumanity should face expulsion from the sport as mandatory, with the case referred to the police so that penal justice can be served. The sport, as with people with family and loved-ones, is the heartbeat of my world.
The Grand National should be available to everyone involved in National Hunt, every jockey, every owner and every trainer, no matter how negligible in the grand scheme of things, a chance of glory. It was as democratic as a horse race could ever be. The search for good luck on the day was as ponderous for the best jockey, owner and trainer taking part as those connected to the 100/1 shots. Bechers Brook was the devil to all; it showed no mercy to favourites and outsiders alike, there was no clemency for those who did not execute the right procedure for still being in the race heading for the Foinavon fence. Bechers these days has no fresh tales to tell. It is neutered, made insignificant, its notoriety as dead as Jack the Ripper. 
I am quite sure, though it might make a fascinating and insightful study for someone to prove or disprove my belief, that if you divide the number of horses who have ever taken part in Grand Nationals since its inception, by the number who have perished, the answer would be very similar to the percentage of horses who lose their lives in any one average National Hunt season. In fact, more Grand Nationals were run without a fatality than with, even in the days when the fences were upright, with no belly to them and the seasoned way for a jockey was to call a cab at virtually every fence. In the year 68 took part, there were, as far as my library of racing books tell me, not one fatality. If the Grand National were never televised I doubt if the course would have changed very much since 1960.
Yes, last year, having most of the field still in with a chance as they entered the straight, was a novel and eye-bewitching sight, but, playing devil advocate, what if a loose horse had run across the second-last, or one of the leaders had fallen or attempted to refuse? The debacle could easily have been of the magnitude of achieved by Popham Down in Foinavon’s year. Many fallers at least allow for the closing stages of the race to be uneventful, outside of a Devon Loch incident, of course.
If I could stage an intervention, if I could beg on bended knee, I would accept the neutering of the fences but only if the field-size was returned to 40 and the minimum rating returned to where it was in 2012. For it to be a true and traditional ‘Grand’ National people like Rosamary Henderson and the Duke of Alburquerque should be given the opportunity of taking part, permit trainers like Henry Cole and Frank Coton should not be disadvantaged and horses like Foinavon and Mon Mone must be allowed to strike their names into the historic fabric of the race and the sport. And though perhaps Red Rum deserves the honour, it is sad that no horse will ever again be able to equal his achievements around Aintree as the Aintree of today is but a toy to the battle-field of his hey-day.

​There is a stated aim this flat season to get races off on time. The main problem with this acceptable ambition is the professional pride of stalls handlers who do not like to be beaten by intransigent or downright naughty horses and, if given the time, would try, try again to obtain a 100% win-ratio. 
The problem of late start-times on the flat is very similar to false starts over jumps where the horses line-up outside of loudhailer distance. On the flat, jockeys seem determined to be as far away from the stalls as possible, meaning stalls handlers have further to walk to gather-up the next horse to be loaded. Shorten the area between which the horses gather for loading and the stalls and valuable time will be saved.

Mr. Nicholson of West Bolden, South Tyneside, in the letters’ column of today’s Racing Post, is 100% correct in condemning the non-sensical way winners ridden before the Guineas Meeting are not included in a jockeys total for the championship, as do no winners ridden after Champions Day. It is plain bonkers and jockeys should complain about it.
People annoyingly, at least annoying to me, compare horse racing with Formula 1, even though the former is exciting and the latter 95% boring. Yet the Formula 1 champion is decided upon every race in the calendar, not just a percentage of the races staged. The champion jockey should be the one who rides the most winners from the first race of the season to the last. If the sport must have a trophy presented to a jockey on Champions Day why not present it to the most successful jockey in Group I’s and classics in the intervening 12-months.

My next moan/query is why are some five-furlong races not exactly over 5-furlongs but can be a few yards short of 5-furlongs and why some chases and hurdles are yards short of 2-miles? I always thought the minimum distance for a flat race was 5-furlongs and for National Hunt 2-miles. Perhaps some racecourses get dispensation for one reason or another, though in my opinion they should be made to move the finishing post to ensure every race is run to the minimum distance allowed. It is all too easy to slip from just under 5-furlongs to 4½-furlongs. 

Finally – late-up today as no one told me the clocks went forward last night – the Lincoln and Cambridgeshire designate the origin of those races, even if the Lincoln is staged in Yorkshire these days rather than Lincolnshire. So why do Ireland stage Lincolns and Cambridgeshires. Why do they not name these races after a town, city or county in Ireland? 1-mile handicaps are not all thought-of as Lincolns, so why the necessity for Ireland to name its first valuable mile handicap ‘the Lincoln’?
I also have a problem with regional nationals in Ireland being staged over 3-miles and under as the racing definition of a ‘national’ is or should be ‘a race of 3-miles 4-furlongs or longer’. A national is a race for long-distance staying chasers, not for horses that barely stay 3-miles.

​As with many people, I suspect, I first became aware of horse racing through watching the Grand National on a black and white television set. Back then, as a nine or ten-year-old, I knew nothing of the vagaries and nuances of the sport and on a black and white t.v. my instant fascination could have little to do with ‘the all-the-fun-of-the-fair’ colour of the silks or jerseys or any of the back-stories of the horses and jockeys taking part. To my youthful eyes it was keystone cops meets the courage of jockey and horse, the lottery of chance, fate and the wrath of the gods all mixed and jangled together. It was love at first sight and for the best part of sixty-years it was a love that never wavered.
As with long-lasting marriages my love for the Grand National was confronted by grim realities, the race lost to the I.R.A. hurt me to the quick, the void National made me angry and miserable with those with the responsibility to protect the great race, though the greatest threat to this love-affair was when the tinkering began after the 2012 National won by Neptune Collonge. Two horses died in that race, neither directly due to the fences, with the bravery of the first two home neglected in favour of hand-wringing and a commitment to ever-decreasing circles.
I would have more respect for Aintree if they had put an end to the Grand National, to have had the final Grand National, and then announced the replacement race, the race I will always refer to as the Aintree National. The race next Saturday is not the Grand National, albeit they continue to register it thus. The distance is shorter, the fences lower, Bechers Brook is but a name on a plan of the course, and there are fewer runners and it is no longer the race of the people. In time it will go the way of the Epsom Derby and become of no relevance outside of the sport. It is nothing more than a cash-cow now, a fund that keeps Jockey Club Estates afloat.

I doubt if many people remember Gordon Cramp. The name was familiar to me as after he retired as a jockey, he trained at Failand, just outside of Bristol, my home city. I did not know him as a jockey.
It would not happen now, quite rightly, but when Cramp was offered the ride on Melilla in the 1962 Grand National, he had not ridden over fences all season and to get his eye in he begged a ride in a selling chase at Fontwell on the Monday of the week of the Grand National.
The horse was a 100/1 no-hoper, yet it was a milestone in the career of Cramp. Few would have expected Melilla to go beyond the first, yet the mare jumped clear as far as Bechers second-time round where she tired and Cramp quickly pulled her up.
The 1962 race was won by the 12-year-old Kilmore, ridden by Fred Winter. The 2nd and 3rd were also 12-year-olds, the luckless Wyndburgh was second for the third-time and former winner Mr.What was third, something which you would get long-odds of ever happening again, three 12-year-olds fighting out the finish of an Aintree National.
It would be nice to recall that Cramp’s career took off after his foray around Aintree but that would be fiction not fact. He finished his career with only 36-winners, though he went on to train a dozen-winners and work for some of the leading trainers. He also became a talented artist, painting water colours.

Keith Barnfield was more a painter and decorator than he was a jockey when he was offered the ride on Ormonde Tudor in the 1976 Grand National. He was 36 and his ride had only won a solitary selling chase at Tees-side Park (Stockton). 
Barnfield’s best season for winners was 1967/68 with 10 and the richest race he ever won was the £1,000 Colonel Thompson Memorial Hurdle at Market Rasen. His first ever winner was Scarron in a selling hurdle at Cheltenham in 1965.
His only ride in the Grand National ended at the first fence, though he was always keen to correct the form-book as Ormonde Tudor did not so much but slip on the long-wet grass. The horse was notable for having as many trainers during his time as a racehorse as he had years on the clock, moving stables on a yearly basis. It was only when he came under the care of Rosemary Lomax that he began to shine, winning three handicap chases for her. He also won three-times when he moved on to Tommy Fairhurst.
The 1976 Grand National, of course, was won by Rag Trade, delaying Red Rum’s immortality by 12-months, winning by 2-lengths whilst in receipt of 12 Ibs.

In Chris Pitts ‘Go Down To The Beaten’ there are 109 examples of people who rode without success in the Grand National. The 110th  is A.P. McCoy’s big moment in 2010. There will never be another A.P. McCoy and there will never again be a Grand National.