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Grand National to undergo major changes amid animal rights pressure
The overhaul comes after protesters caused the 2023 race to be delayed but the changes, Aintree insists, are not a result of the protests
The Grand National is to undergo a raft of radical safety-related changes including reducing the size of the field and moving the first fence after animal rights protests.
The changes follow an annual review of the race which Aintree undertakes and was not, the racecourse insisted, in any way prompted by the course invasion by Animal Rising which delayed the start to this year’s Grand National and consequently upset a number of horses, of which first fence fatality, Hill Sixteen, was one.
As a result of the review, next year’s Grand National will include:
- The field of 40 horses being reduced to a maximum of 34
- First fence to be moved back towards the start by 60 yards to reduce the arrival speed of the field
- Implementing a standing start at the tape
- Start time returning to a mid-afternoon slot to aid ground management
- Trimming the 11th fence by two inches to lower the risk of falling
- Removing handlers from the parade
- Ramping up pre-race veterinary and eligibility checks
The Jockey Club has announced that it will cut the maximum number of runners for the first time since 1984, reducing the field size from 40 to 34, and in a bid to reduce the speed the field goes towards the first it will pull the first fence 60 yards closer to the start line as well as implementing a standing start.
The changes come just six months after animal rights protesters targeted Aintree and caused the 2023 Grand National to be delayed, before Hill Sixteen died at the first fence when the race eventually got under way after a 15-minute delay.
Other more nuanced alterations include bringing the race back from its post-5pm start to the middle of the afternoon, aiding ground management with more giving turf, and a parade which is not handler-led, meaning each horse can canter off in front of the stands before turning to look at the first fence.
While the earlier start time will be reintroduced with the going in mind, it will also reduce the length of time that the 80,000-strong in attendance will have to drink alcohol and intensify the atmosphere, which it can be argued contributed to this year’s chaotic scenes.
Pre-race vet checks and eligibility criteria will also be ramped up, while Fence 11 will be pruned back two inches, although in the history of the National no horse has suffered a fatality at the open ditch.
It comes 10 years after the last major alterations to the famous course took place – the replacing of the wooden post core of the fences by a more forgiving ‘plastic birch’, the removal of most drop landings and shifting the start 90 yards forwards after two horses, including the Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Synchronised, died in the 2012 race.
One of the things that sets the National apart as a race and as the most colourful 10 minutes in sport is a full field of 40 horses racing away from the stands down over the first six fences and reducing that number by 15 per cent is the most controversial change.
Speaking about the decision, Aintree’s clerk of the course, Sulekha Varma, who led the review process, said: “The welfare of our racehorses and jockeys is our number one priority at Aintree and we have invested significantly in equine welfare over many years. We continually review the Grand National and following an in-depth, evidence-based review process this year, we are announcing several changes as part of its continued evolution.
“One of our key areas of focus is reducing the risk of incidents during the race. We know from research papers and internal analysis of jump races that there is a direct correlation between the number of runners and the risk of falling, unseating or being brought down.
“However, we also must consider that reducing the field size by too great a number could create a faster race and have an adverse impact in terms of safety. Using the information available to us and considering the experiences of participants, our conclusion is that 34 should be the maximum number of runners in the race which we hope will result in the least number of incidents.”
A recent trend has been the speeding up of the race in the early part. Horses traditionally met the first doing 28 mph but for the last three years it has been between 34-35 mph and the field has been getting to Becher’s four lengths ahead even of 1990 when the track record was set.
The Jockey Club thought long and hard about putting the start after the first fence which would have reduced the distance to nearer four miles but stopped short of that by pulling the first fence back 60 yards.
Moving the start towards the first was a non-starter because of restrictions on the width of the course, part of which is the bend on the Mildmay course. In theory it should have the desired effect of slowing the pace at which the first is taken.
Nevin Truesdale, chief executive of the Jockey Club, said: “I believe that a competitive, fair and safe Randox Grand National is one of the best ways of ensuring the sport continues to thrive for generations to come and remains an important part of Britain’s culture and economy.
“That means our sport, like many other sports have done, needs to recognise when action needs to be taken to evolve because the safety and care of horses and jockeys will always be our number one priority. In making these changes at Aintree we are underlining our relentless focus on welfare and our commitment to powering the future of British racing.”
The changes were welcomed by dual National winning trainer Lucinda Russell whose Corach Rambler won last season’s race. “I am fully supportive of reducing the field size and I don’t feel that six fewer runners will make a difference to the heritage of the race,” she said. “It can only be a good step and hopefully will help improve the start procedures.”
However, welfare group Animal Rising rejected the changes as measures with equine safety in mind.
“These changes are nothing more than an attempt to hide the realities of horse racing from the British public,” said Louisa Hillwood, spokesperson for Animal Rising. “Just as factory farms have rebranded themselves as free-range, or cage-free, the Jockey Club is trying to create a fanciful image of the industry. All this completely ignores our fundamentally broken relationship with other animals and the natural world.
“We all want to see these horses living happy lives in sanctuaries, not being raced; just as we need to see mass rewilding and a plant-based food system to really tackle our climate and nature crises.”
Grand National should have held nerve – runners and fences are not the problem
Whether you regard the changes made to next year’s Randox Health Grand National as a pragmatic decision to tailor the race for modern tastes or an invitation for Animal Rising to pop by again in 2024, there is no question last season’s race made for difficult viewing.
It is not easy to pin all the blame for the 2023 running’s drama on the animal rights group’s pitch invasion but the hold up instilled equal panic among the organisers and the competitors, and set off a chain of events which created a perfect storm for the National of a first fence fatality and loose horses galloping about like headless chickens. And the mop up continues.
Changes to the course to improve the safety of horses and jockeys are nothing new. As early as 1841 a stone wall in front of the stands was replaced by an open water after four of the 12 runners had come down at it. Ironically back then spectacle trumped safety and the wall was reinstated in 1843 – for one year only – because no faller at the water was not deemed exciting enough.
After a pile up at the Canal Turn in 1929, the ditch on the take-off side was filled in and, historically, the most significant changes have usually been reactive to an incident.
In 1990 I was the beneficiary of the landing side of Becher’s Brook having been levelled and the ditch filled in after two fatalities there in 1989. Luckily it was not level enough to stop Uncle Merlin, the only horse going better than Mr Frisk, from tripping up there the second time we jumped it.
But, sitting from the comfort of the press room, I would have held my nerve on cutting numbers and moving the first fence 60 yards closer to the start, but I am all for the Jockey Club’s more subtle changes.
I have been banging on like a stuck record for some time about not running the race so late in the day (not just because of my vested interest in avoiding the nightmare of having to bang out 1,000 words on the race in half an hour).
Quite apart from the ground management reasoning on a post-5pm start, there are 80,000 people there on their big day out who have been drinking for nearly six hours – who can blame them? – and, like the golf and cricket, crowds can get very raucous at the end of a ‘long day’. That was very evident this year and both horses and jockeys, for whom it is also an incredibly long day, were incontrovertibly revved by it.
In 2013 the start was, quite rightly, pulled 90 yards down the course to get it out of the way of the bear-pit created by Aintree’s then new Derby and Sefton grandstands. That was subsequently undone by new country-wide start procedures that required the runners to circle nearly a furlong behind the start, right back in the cauldron where the atmosphere, following the delay, has never been more febrile than it was in April. Now I would also have them circling in front of the start until required to line up, not behind it.
But what sets the National apart as a race is not only its extreme distance – thank goodness, though tempted, they did not alter that -– but the lush green fences, the distance to the first and from the last which all add to the unique challenge, and the number of runners. It was the only race boasting 40 horses.
I may be guilty of putting spectacle before safety but while it is all very well cutting the numbers, how that works all depends on the jockeys and how they use the extra space. There was already more room for 40 runners at Aintree than 27 in a hurdle around Cheltenham and if all the jockeys decide to take the inside then it does not really get anyone anywhere.
But in the last 10 years neither Minella Times (2021), who propelled Rachael Blackmore into mega-stardom, and Auroras Encore (2013) would have got into the race. Against that, did we think any less of Rough Quest’s win against 26 rivals in 1996 or Bobbyjo’s against 31 others in 1999? Nope.
And there is one thing you cannot legislate for. Today’s jockeys will love this from an old long retired amateur but, on the whole, they ride too short. In a modern National the most common form of exit is the unseat. At times this year’s race looked like an extreme dismounting contest or testing ground for prototype ejector seats.
It is, surely, no coincidence that the most successful jockeys in recent years have been Derek Fox, who rides three holes longer than anyone else, Leighton Aspell, Davy Russell, David Mullins and Ryan Mania who all rode a decent length. That is something jockeys need to work out for themselves.
If the National is the portal through which people come into racing or are completely turned off by it, then the Jockey Club sits between a rock and hard place on a tightrope on this. They are damned if they do, damned if they don’t.
But by cutting the number of runners by 15 per cent, my worry is what happens after the next incident? Where do you go from here? Is it evolution or erosion?