I almost feel duty bound to talk about the Grand National today following the death of two horses in this year’s race.
The National is one of our country’s iconic sporting events. The year throws up a number of these that capture the imagination of the public. They include the Grand National, the Derby, the World Snooker Championship, the University Boat Race, the Cup Final and a handful more.
These are events that bring in a television audience of millions. Virtually every sports fan will know that the Grand National takes place in April. It is truly iconic.
This year the focus has been on the two horses that were put down following the race. One just happened to be one of our top animals Synchronised. That fact is fairly irrelevant. When it comes to animals dying in this race it scarcely seems to matter much whether they are champions or second raters. They are all living, breathing animals.
At the end of the day the Grand National is about two things (and I’m not sure what order they come in). It is about sport and money. It is also the greatest race over jumps in the world. It fires the imagination like no other race (The Derby included). I have been a horse racing fan for many years and thoroughly enjoy a day or evening out at the races. Primarily I am a fan of flat racing, but if I had to put races in order of enjoyment and importance the National would be at the top by some way.
It is a sporting spectacle. Now the talk will not be so much about sport as about whether the race is two dangerous. It’s a difficult argument about where safety should take over from spectacle. As an expert pointed out this morning – all sports have their element of danger. Formula One is highly dangerous, we had an oarsman collapse at this year’s Boat Race, Fabrice Mwamba had a heart attack whilst playing football, a 21-year-old Italian player died this week whilst playing football. Most sports have their dangers.
Of course people will point out that footballers, rugby players, racing drivers make their own decisions, know the dangers and also know that the rewards make taking those dangers worthwhile. Jockeys also know the dangers but of course the horses don’t.
I have to point out that having been round a number of racing stables I can attest to the fact that race horses by and large have a wonderful life. They are looked after, exercised, pampered and cared for in modern facilities and often when they retire from racing they are put out to stud. Horses love to run. They love to run fast and these are thoroughbreds.
So does that justify races like the Grand National or are they too dangerous? Well firstly if you water down the National and cut the number of sizes of the fences you will destroy it. It will become just another race. Who is really interested in the Welsh or Scottish Grand Nationals where the fences are smaller? It is the legend of fences like Beecher’s Brook, The Chair, Valentine’s Brook and the Foinavon that makes the National what it is. Every race fan will know what the phrase “crossing the Melling Road” means irrespective of whether they have a clue where in Liverpool the Melling Road is.
The National is the ultimate test of trainer, jockey and horse. It has been in existence at Aintree since 1839 and it has turned many horses into heroes (think about three times winner Red Rum in this context). Having never been a horse myself (well not knowingly anyway) I cannot attest to how they are feeling whilst taking part in the Grand National but my guess is that they enjoy themselves.
It is natural for a horse to run and jump. Just look at those that lose their rider and continue to happily follow the pack and jump fences when they could easily stop or run out of the course. They are conditioned and trained for these events and this is something we shouldn’t forget.
Winning the National, along with winning the Derby, is the highest accolade a racehorse can have. If we ban the race or scale it down it will be watering down this accolade. Yes it is tragic when horses have to be put down but we shouldn’t take this out of context. Two horses died, 38 either completed the course or fell and were physically sound.
I mentioned yesterday that I am at present reading a biography of Joseph Stalin, a man who was responsible for the murder, mass genocide and death of millions of his own people. Think of Hitler, Mugabi, Amin, Saddam Hussein – the list of those prepared to butcher human beings is almost endless. So I really don’t think we should get too emotive about the death of two horses.
Yes you can argue that they died because of the greed of people, they died because of the high stakes involved and they died in the name of sport and entertainment. But that is all part of our modern day lifestyle. Think about how many horses were needlessly led to slaughter in the inhumanity of the First World War and how many animals will be slaughtered today and everyday to provide us with meat for our Sunday roasts.
If we ban the Grand National, do we ban all Steeplechasing
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Talking of sport over the next two days Hethersett Athletic Football Club is interviewing all its managers/coaches for next season. The first two interviews took place this morning. The idea behind this is to ensure that all our teams are run efficiently and effectively and that the club is able to communicate better. We made a decent start but I’ve got a feeling tomorrow will be a long night.
From those interviews I went onto the Village Hall to take photographs for the village web site of the coming Yvonne School of Dance show which takes place in Norwich Theatre Royal in May. Was able to get some decent photos to help them with their advance publicity and also for my village web site.
Final port of call for the day was a charity cricket match at Hardingham for the Wymondham based Star Throwers Cancer Charity, more of which later.
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