Gm, Equinauts

It’s a game of opinions’ is an age-old adage often thrown around by punters when discussing a horse’s chances, but it applies to more than just betting.

We thought long and hard before hitting send on our opinion on Saturday’s Grand National. As a horse racing newsletter, there’s an obvious moral conundrum, and we’re not ignorant to the hypocrisy

We didn’t like the race—at all. It felt chaotic, with far too many fallers. It’s not a good watch, and that’s coming from people who care deeply about racing.

The sport is bigger than the Grand National, and it doesn’t need it to survive. But how long can jumps racing survive with it in its current form? We’re really not sure. Saturday’s race wasn’t a good advert—if anything, it did the opposite. In our opinion.

Now, we know the retort—those reading this might think we’re soft: if you ban the National, you can say goodbye to jumps racing.

We get that. And that’s exactly where the hypocrisy lies because we like jumps racing and will fight to support it.

We generally watch every jumps race, every day, no problem. The fact we struggle to watch the National is a case in point itself and we feel the unique nature of the National means you can treat it independently to the sport main.

We don’t have the answer and would welcome every new suggestion to make it a better race before simply saying ‘end it’. Whether it’s reducing the field size (dramatically) or giving the construction of the hedges a total re-think (tighter birch or a presenting a gradient in line with normal NH jumps), more has to be done in our view.

No horses died from this years National and we hope that stat doesn’t change in the coming days, but that was never our point. With the way the race was run, there could quite easily have been several fatalities and we’re not for that.

If you owned a horse you loved, would you allow him to run in the National? We wouldn’t.

On the subject of loss, our thoughts are with the connections of GET ON GEORGE and GOLD DANCER, two horses who sadly didn’t go back to their stables.

There was lots about Aintree to celebrate (remember, we do love horse racing) and so, as is the tradition the Monday after any big meeting, we’re handing out awards for the best and worst of it!

Let’s dive in.

AINTREE AWARDS

⭐BEST PERFORMANCE

This is easy. This award goes to the horse whose trainer famously joked that he’d beat CONSTITUTION HILL on his gallops at home:

Yep, performance of the week goes to BARTON SNOW who did this in the Fox Hunters’:

The trainer couldn’t have him beat coming into the race and yet the bookies allowed him to go off 2/1. It was one of the easiest performances you’ll ever see at a major meeting and was a pure joy to watch.

Brave, BARTON SNOW and Joe O’Shea!

🎯BEST TRAINING PERFORMANCE

Joseph O’Brien saddled only 7 runners at Aintree. Of that 7, three placed, one of those being JORDANS coming third in the big one, and two won - ZEUS POWER landing the Sefton and HOME BY THE LEE winning the Liverpool Hurdle.

And incredible stat, but it becomes ever more impressive when you learn that Joseph only has about 25 jumps horses in training.

Let’s be honest, he was never going to be a failure coming from Ballydoyle, but what he is achieving at such a young age is remarkable. Pound for pound he is arguably the best trainer in the world.

Well done, Joseph and team!

🗑️THE BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT

Big Paul Nicholls lands this one. He is just having a terrible season (by his standards anyway). He went home pot-less after Cheltenham and and Aintree was just another big meeting Paul’s had to leave empty handed.

Of 12 runners, BLUEKING D’OROUX went the closest, finishing second in the Manifesto and only got that because LULAMBA put Nico through the clouds.

12 runners isn’t a lot of runners for Paul at a big meeting like Aintree and is a big red flag indicating there is a seriously bad lack of quality stock in the yard.

We don’t like seeing people do badly (unless they deserve it) but Paul is rapidly on the decline and it will take a few years to re-build.

📰 HEADLINE ROUNDUP

🏆 Dan Skelton lands first champion trainer title 

⭐ CONSTITUTION HILL gets his Newbury entry

💰 Monster gambled landed in the National

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