Let Cheltenham do its own research

By Ian Carnaby

As L P Hartley wrote in The Go Between, ‘The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there’.

Thumbing through an old history of the Grand National, it is hard to disagree. There are those, Josh Gifford among them, who think the heart has been ripped out of the old race following various modifications to the fences. Of course, it only matters if you remember things as they were, and neither he nor I go back as far as Reynoldstown’s second year in 1936, when this wonderful steeplechaser, ridden by Fulke Walwyn, humped 12st 2lb to victory over the biggest, blackest obstacles you have ever seen. The previous year, when Frank Furlong, a subaltern in the 9th Lancers, was in the saddle the horse cracked the course record - admittedly off a much lower weight.

The thing was, no one thought twice about it. Just like those extraordinary statistics that came out the other day about horses killed in the First World War, it was simply what happened. The press had no comment to make because it was a routine matter at the time.

When Josh rode the favourite Honey End in 1967, making up the better part of a hundred yards on the uncatchable Foinavon in one of the most famous of all Nationals, the fences were still quite a bit tougher than they are today. He has been around long enough to remember the great nights at the Adelphi and Dave Dick whizzing down the spiral staircase on a tea-tray. Josh worked hard and played hard, and it was one of the greatest days of my racing life when he had his Liverpool reward with Aldaniti because no one could have deserved it more. Josh loved the sheer earthiness of the National, the risks it involved, the grass roots Liverpudlian camaraderie. He preferred it to Cheltenham, he once told me.

But everything changes and there is no doubt that some distressing pictures of horses stuck in ditches or straddled across the top of the famous old obstacles had the desired effect as far as the RSPCA was concerned. Gradually, with the race beamed live around the world, the alterations came into effect. That the newspapers were hypocritical to a degree is not in doubt; after all, a day or two before the race nearly all of them published pinsticker guides and easy-to-detach slips for the office sweep. Then, when it suited their purposes to play the cruelty card, they did not hold back.

So, the famous race became a routine long-distance handicap whilst retaining unique characteristics - a gentle giant as opposed to an ogre. No one wants to see horses abused and everyone hates seeing them die unnecessarily. I remember going on local television a couple of years ago when Cheltenham lost ten at the Festival and feelings were running high. What you have to understand is that some people do actually prefer animals to human beings and it is hard to reason with them. Pointing out that, if steeplechasers didn’t race they probably wouldn’t be around anyway, is a monumental waste of time. So is the valid assertion that they also die on the gallops. If it’s not on television, it doesn’t happen.

I happen to think that the Cheltenham executive is particularly diligent where safety is concerned. There are painstaking reviews of every unfortunate incident and determined attempts to put things right. That is why knee-jerk criticism of the second-last fence following the death of Granit Jack last week is so misguided. Simon Claisse, the clerk of the course, had made the necessary changes following Latalomne’s second fall at the same obstacle in 2003. There is no apparent ‘dropping away’ on the landing side and the fence is NOT a downhill one.

In the Paddy Power Gold Cup, seven horses came down the hill with a chance of winning. All were being hard ridden, which is what you would expect in a tightly-knit handicap chase. All of the other six, despite being under pressure, cleared the fence and ran on down to the last. Every horse had jumped it satisfactorily on the first two days. Yes, two more came down on Sunday but they were unharmed. Also - and I’m not claiming this is ‘right’ or in any way justifiable - the fall of a favourite when challenging will always earn more replays, capture more headlines than the loss of an outsider out in the country.

Paul Nicholls, though upset, did not blame the fence for Granit Jack’s accident. The horse simply crumpled on landing after jumping it well enough. A few years ago, people made all the same sort of points about the third last.

The point I’m trying to make is that it’s a jumping competition at a track with unique characteristics. If you start tinkering with this fence and that, you end up with something more akin to a hurdles race, where falls come as something of a surprise. That’s not what steeplechasing is about. Horses have to jump round, negotiate the obstacles when they start to tire but the adrenaline is flowing, then find enough up the hill in a driving finish. As long as the fence is fair, which the overall statistics say it is, it must be left alone. We don’t want unnecessary risks but, on the other hand, we don’t want a long-distance flat race with a few novelty obstacles along the way.

I repeat, Cheltenham looks at these things on a regular basis and can be trusted to get them right. Instant opinions offered from the armchair, via this chatroom and that, are simply unhelpful.