The Grand National is set to undergo its biggest revamp in changes since 2012 and Gloucestershire Live racing reporter Ash Symonds has given his opinions on these alterations.
The most notable change that has been made is that the maximum number of runners has been reduced from 40 to 34, which is the first reduction in runners since the 40-runner cap was introduced in 1984. Gloucestershire Live racing reporter Ash Symonds gave his opinions on the cut of runners.
“You can look at the data and see there is a correlation between smaller field sizes and less fatalities but in something like the Grand National where there are 34 runners anyway it’s going to be hard to measure how much of an impact this field size has, we’ll need to see a few more Grand National’s to be able to see”.
This cut in field size is due to one horse, Hill Sixteen, sadly losing its life in the 2023 Grand National. After the 2023 event, the Jockey Club carried out a review alongside equine charity World Horse Welfare and the key findings have led to the cut in field size.
Symonds continued: “Is it going to reduce the danger by a significant amount? We really don’t know. They’ve made the changes in the spirit of making the race safer and you can only applaud that, but it is a difficult wire to navigate.”
Another big change made by the British Horseracing Authority have made is introducing a standing start, rather than having the horses walking into the tape. This will be the case for all races over the Grand National course during the 2023-24 season and in the future as well.
The first fence will also be moved 60 yards closer to the starting point of the Grand National. This is in an attempt to reduce the speed at which horses approach the first of the 30 fences.
“I agree with this measure, I think moving the first fence closer is a positive measure, it’ll stop the horses going too fast too soon.”
However, Ash believes that a lot of these changes have come due to backlash from animal activist groups.
“I think we need to be careful with these measures is that we don’t fall too much into appeasing the anti-horseracing side of things”.
“There will be people that aren’t going to be happy until horse racing ceases to exist!”
