Hi, hope you are all enjoying the Christmas and New Year's celebration. The 'Mince-pie mountain' has nearly gone in our house now.
As 2012 draws to a close, we're publishing 2 new blogs this weekend (the 2nd one has our first offer so keep an eye out) to take a look at some of the market leaders and key pointers to the 2013 Grand National, being held at the world famous Aintree Racecourse.
We'll also take a look at the key changes that have been made to the race this year and how that may affect things so let's deal with that first in this update. In summary, the changes are as follows :
- There are sixteen fences on the National course, four have been altered. The 3rd, 11th, 13th and 14th fences of the course used to be made from a hard timber frame which was padded with foam. They were trialed at the Becher meeting with a softer padding, assuming that it will reduce the chances of the horse falling over if they knock their legs on the fence following a poor jump. As before though, if a horse connected with the solid fence then it would result in a fall.
- The height of the fences will not be altered, as lower fences would increase the horses’ speeds and consequently cause further problems and injuries.
- The length of the race was previously four and a half miles, it will now be four miles and three-and-a-half furlongs - a reduction of ninety yards at the start in an attempt to slow down the annual cavalry charge.
- The start will also have a new 'no-go' zone as the horses line-up in order to prevent early tape-breaks by keen jockeys.
- An investment will be made into the irrigation of the race course, to ensure safe jumping ground.
- Also, changes will be made which will make it easier for horses that have lost their riders to be taken off the course as soon as possible.
These alterations have been approved by many parties, including the RSPCA’s Equine Consultant, David Muir. He commented to Atthraces in September:
We don't want to ruin the Grand National, we don't want to ruin the ethos of the Grand National - we want to ensure that when we have horses going round they get to the other end of the race.
What do we do? Do we keep going at 40 (runners)? Let's try 30, we tried 30 last year in the Fox Hunters' and I know they only go round once but we had a lot of horses getting round, over two-thirds of the field and in the National we had less than half.
In the last 10 years we have had an increase in fallers and fatalities. Is it the course, is it the horses? We've got to try and find out what it is.
The fence changes are a definite help. Less fallers = less race-bashers. Win ! No changes to the height of the fences is also a good thing - after all this is The National, it's supposed to be spectacular and indeed it will still make jockeys take more care and slow down. I'm not convinced that the reduction of 90 yds will stop the charge to the 1st. It may even have an adverse affect as jockeys have less time to get to their desired position, only time will tell.
The irrigation has been a must for a few years now as we have seen good weather for the meeting for quite a few years now. We haven't seen the likes of ground that brought Earth Summit and Red Marauder's wins recently. Finally, the removal of horses as soon as possible is also welcomed, mainly to avoid BD's.
Hope you've enjoyed reading this - if you have please Retweet - if not, comment below and tell us what you think and why,
seasons greetings, @aintreeinfo
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