Grand National so many failed to finish!

Maesfen said:
While you have a couple of catcher uppers at pt to pt, they do not 'trespass' onto the track during a race to catch up but are there to field any that come off the track (courses are not fenced all the way around as they go across fields in most cases)
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Can you imagine the carnage as Bill rushes off to catch a horse only to find his horse likes it too much and wants to gallop after the field instead of catching said loose horse let alone the chance of colliding with other loose horses or a lowly straggler. H & S would have a field day and there would be more calamities than there already have been by the 'safer' changes so far
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Yep, that has to be one of the stupidest suggestions I've seen all year, OTY surpassed themselves this time.
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But you are forgetting one thing your trusty lasso:D

God forbid if once lassoed it took off and the resulting carnage.
 
I remember watching a race in America on YouTube, not sure if it is still up, where one of the Outriders that lead horses to the start got bolted with - head on into the racehorses racing - they met a furlong from home when all the jockeys heads were down driving their horses - horse went into horse at high speed - both went up in the air - all came down in a heap - 2 dead horses - 2 dead humans.

There are enough horses out on the course at Aintree to avoid without adding in extra "Outriders" that's just ridiculous and dangerous! What you need is a team of people in 4x4's who can go round at the back and drop off people to collect loose horses that have stopped and are milling about. Bring them off the track into the centre of the course where they are out of harms way and can cause no further disruption. There is absolutely no need to add yet more horses to the melay.
 
EKW said:
There are enough horses out on the course at Aintree to avoid without adding in extra "Outriders" that's just ridiculous and dangerous! What you need is a team of people in 4x4's who can go round at the back and drop off people to collect loose horses that have stopped and are milling about. Bring them off the track into the centre of the course where they are out of harms way and can cause no further disruption. There is absolutely no need to add yet more horses to the melay.
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EKW, this is already done, has been for years and they are in place at every jump and various bends where the horses might run off. I know, many of my friends have done it for years.
 
Just a thought but couldn't it be arranged that every entrant for the Grand National should have either a hunting qualification or have attended special schooling runs over the Aintree fences which differ from standard NH jumps.
This and reinstating the larger fences may make the course safer as it would weed out the horses that are at their limits.

The loss of two good horses was tragic but when look at the race list more riders were unseated than had the horse fall.

BTW the BHS statement echoed that of WHW, very sensible.
 
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s4sugar said:
Just a thought but couldn't it be arranged that every entrant for the Grand National should have either a hunting qualification or have attended special schooling runs over the Aintree fences which differ from standard NH jumps.
This and reinstating the larger fences may make the course safer as it would weed out the horses that are at their limits.

The loss of two good horses was tragic but when look at the race list more riders were unseated than had the horse fall.

BTW the BHS statement echoed that of WHW, very sensible.
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Not sure the hunting thing would work, for one it would be a good call to arms for the anti's! Also how do you know if the horse has actually jumped around hedges or large fences - who police's that?

Qualification races over the Aintree fences might be a better option.
 
From a US website:

"The Numbing Numbers
Everyday in the U.S., 190 million motor vehicles hit the road, and one million animals get hit by motor vehicles. That's counting cars, buses, motorbikes, and trucks, but not ATVs, snowmobiles and other off-road vehicles. The figure includes mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians, but not insects and bugs, who somehow never count.

Every year our nation's experimenters kill 100 million lab animals, hunters kill 200 million "game" animals, and motorists kill nearly 400 million road animals. Only America's meat-eaters take a larger toll than its motorists.

For every dead animal counted, three or four more die unnoticed. Even at 55 m.p.h., we smell the remains of far more dead skunks than we see. The walking wounded die far from the road, so only instantly killed animals are seen and get counted.

But who's counting? During the late 1950s, in a roadside version of the Audubon's Christmas bird counts, the Humane Society of the United States conducted some Fourth of July body counts. During the 1970s, again groping for numbers, the Humane Society compiled data from isolated scientific studies of single roads or single species. Its secondary sources yielded the same national death toll as its field studies: one million animals a day."

The rest of the article is also interesting reading:

http://www.culturechange.org/issue8/roadkill.htm

Two horses die in the Grand National and we are appalled. Millions of animals die on the roads each year because of Man's need/love to drive cars. Do we care? Would we care more if it was headline news? Will it stop us driving?
 
Every horse has to qualify for the GN and Im sure all the trainers school their horses over GN type fences.

The hunting idea wont work as point to pointers have to hunt to qualify and their defination of hunting is different to mine. On the odd occasion trainers have sent horses hunting to sweeten them up but I think its a rare occurrence.
 
Dobiegirl said:
Every horse has to qualify for the GN and Im sure all the trainers school their horses over GN type fences.

The hunting idea wont work as point to pointers have to hunt to qualify and their defination of hunting is different to mine. On the odd occasion trainers have sent horses hunting to sweeten them up but I think its a rare occurrence.
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We used to send one or two hunting, but it was a high risk strategy, as the fences and the ground they are asked to run over are not as safe as those we build at home. Hunting helps bored horses, but would be a disaster for many NH horses.
 
Dobiegirl said:
Every horse has to qualify for the GN and Im sure all the trainers school their horses over GN type fences.

The hunting idea wont work as point to pointers have to hunt to qualify and their defination of hunting is different to mine. On the odd occasion trainers have sent horses hunting to sweeten them up but I think its a rare occurrence.
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What is the qualification for the GN? Is it just ratings based or something more?

Is schooling over GN type fences the same as seeing if they up to the challenge of a full or near full course, with a field of runners?
 
Dobiegirl said:
Every horse has to qualify for the GN and Im sure all the trainers school their horses over GN type fences.

The hunting idea wont work as point to pointers have to hunt to qualify and their defination of hunting is different to mine. On the odd occasion trainers have sent horses hunting to sweeten them up but I think its a rare occurrence.
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I did hunt mine properly and they often stayed out all day (behaviour permitting!) but proper NH horses and pointers don't hunt it is too risky (and embarrassing!).
 
To qualify for the GN they have to have won or be placed in races this is to weed out the no hopers.

As for schooling over GN fences you could say the same about any race the horses are schooled over fences like they are going to meet in a race.

Baggybreeches I used to hunt my bf horse to qualify for point to points and he stayed out all day, I was careful with him but no more than I would with any horse. It used to pee me off at others who used to come to the meet, hack around the roads and go home after an hour. My bf horses won ptps and also some races and was a very fit and sound horse.
 
Dobiegirl said:
To qualify for the GN they have to have won or be placed in races this is to weed out the no hopers.

As for schooling over GN fences you could say the same about any race the horses are schooled over fences like they are going to meet in a race.

Baggybreeches I used to hunt my bf horse to qualify for point to points and he stayed out all day, I was careful with him but no more than I would with any horse. It used to pee me off at others who used to come to the meet, hack around the roads and go home after an hour. My bf horses won ptps and also some races and was a very fit and sound horse.
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Ok thanks, just looked it up (i was being lazy before) and they need to have finished fourth or better in a chase over three miles or more, with a minimum rating of 120.
 
When the fences were higher many of the loose horses would refuse at the next fence & would either run off the course via the shute for this purpose
or would be caught up & removed as soon as the other runners were clear of that section, either way most of the loose ones were quickly out of harms way. Now they run on with the rest of the field causing danger to themselves & all those around them.
 
I honestly think in my humble opinion one of the reasons for so many fallers in this and the other races was the fences wern't big enough!! they have been lowered for so called safety which actualy allows the horse to jump them faster which equals more mistakes instead of backing them off and jumping more carefully! also if you look at the races beforehand with faller it was mostly over the final 3 fences on home straight over smaller fences where jockeys have perhaps pushed horse out of rhythm when they have made a mistake and fell - so imho make the fences bigger to back horses off not forgetting these experienced horses an jockeys know the top 3ft of fences can be brushed thru!!
 
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