Saturday, 5 April 2008
Horse That was Killed in the Grand National 2008
John Smith′s Grand National Chase
Mckelvey - "collided with a barrier and proved unable to regain his feet"?
I would say that it was only by chance that not more were fatally injured. There were some horrendous looking falls.
Horses seemed to be landing very steeply and struggling to get their under-carriage out.
There appeared to be a lot of jockeys going middle to outer even on the second circuit. I wonder why?
Not A Fan
I will be the first to admit that I am not a fan of the Grand National.
Having wrote that I do not want the Grand National lost as I think that a 4½ mile steeplechase is well within a horses capability. The majority of horses do like galloping and jumping (although I′m not quite so sure about the having their arse smacked bit but that is a different matter).
How I see it is that in conventional races, such as a poor selling chase right through even to the Gold Cup, when horses fall the greatest majority of them have skidding/sliding falls. That does not make it right and horses do still get hurt but when you see horses fall around Aintree they are nearly always coming down head first which as a result can quite often lead to head and neck injuries.
At a racing pace I believe that horses are expected to jump too high and more than likely too wide a fence at Aintree.
Of course all of the experts would tell you that it has never been so good for racing at Aintree and fatalities are down in recent years but the falls still look terrible.
I would say that the "Aintree Best Dressed Racegoer" and "Ladies Day" type people would still go to the Grand National even if the fences had six to eight inches knocked off them. They are going for the occasion and social aspect and not to see horses pushed beyond bounds that they can reasonably be expected to achieve.
Anyhow, enough said. I won′t change anything and at the end of the day I still think horses should race but I do believe a lot is expected of them at times.
Mckelvey - "collided with a barrier and proved unable to regain his feet"?
I would say that it was only by chance that not more were fatally injured. There were some horrendous looking falls.
Horses seemed to be landing very steeply and struggling to get their under-carriage out.
There appeared to be a lot of jockeys going middle to outer even on the second circuit. I wonder why?
Not A Fan
I will be the first to admit that I am not a fan of the Grand National.
Having wrote that I do not want the Grand National lost as I think that a 4½ mile steeplechase is well within a horses capability. The majority of horses do like galloping and jumping (although I′m not quite so sure about the having their arse smacked bit but that is a different matter).
How I see it is that in conventional races, such as a poor selling chase right through even to the Gold Cup, when horses fall the greatest majority of them have skidding/sliding falls. That does not make it right and horses do still get hurt but when you see horses fall around Aintree they are nearly always coming down head first which as a result can quite often lead to head and neck injuries.
At a racing pace I believe that horses are expected to jump too high and more than likely too wide a fence at Aintree.
Of course all of the experts would tell you that it has never been so good for racing at Aintree and fatalities are down in recent years but the falls still look terrible.
I would say that the "Aintree Best Dressed Racegoer" and "Ladies Day" type people would still go to the Grand National even if the fences had six to eight inches knocked off them. They are going for the occasion and social aspect and not to see horses pushed beyond bounds that they can reasonably be expected to achieve.
Anyhow, enough said. I won′t change anything and at the end of the day I still think horses should race but I do believe a lot is expected of them at times.
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