Continuing from Part One (yesterday)...
Seagram's sponsorship
From 1984 to 1991, Seagram sponsored the Grand National. The
Canadian distiller provided a solid foundation on which the race's revival
could be built, firstly enabling the course to be bought from Davies and to be
run and managed by the Jockey Club. It is said that Ivan Straker, Seagram's UK
chairman, became interested in the potential opportunity after reading a
passionate newspaper article written by journalist Lord Oaksey, who, in his
riding days, had come within three-quarters of a length of winning the 1963
National.
The Monday National
The 1997 Grand National was postponed after two coded bomb
threats were received from the Provisional Irish Republican Army. The course
was secured by police who then evacuated jockeys, race personnel, and local
residents along with 60,000 spectators. Cars and coaches were locked in the
course grounds, leaving some 20,000 people without their vehicles over the
weekend. With limited accommodation available in the city, local residents
opened their doors and took in many of those stranded. This prompted tabloid
headlines such as "We'll fight them on the Becher's", in reference to
Winston Churchill's famous war-time speech. The race was run 48 hours later on
the Monday, with the meeting organisers offering 20,000 tickets with free
admission.
Recent history
Red Rum's trainer Ginger McCain returned to the Grand
National in 2004, 31 years after Red Rum's epic run-in defeat of Crisp to
secure his first of three wins. McCain's Amberleigh House came home first,
ridden by Graham Lee, overtaking Clan Royal on the final straight. Hedgehunter,
who would go on to win in 2005, fell at the last while leading. McCain had
equalled George Dockeray and Fred Rimell's record feat of training four Grand
National winners.
In 2005 John Smith's took over from Martell as main sponsors
of the Grand National and many of the other races at the three-day Aintree
meeting for the first time. In total, thirty members of the public took part in
the event before it was discontinued in 2010.
In 2009, Mon Mome became the longest-priced winner of the
National for 42 years when he defied outside odds of 100/1 to win by 12
lengths. The victory was also the first for trainer Venetia Williams, the first
female trainer to triumph since Jenny Pitman in 1995. The race was also the
first National ride for Liam Treadwell.
In 2010 the National became the first horse race to be
televised in high-definition in the UK.
In August 2013 Crabbie's was announced as the new sponsor of
the Grand National. The three-year deal between the alcoholic ginger beer
producer and Aintree saw the race run for a record purse of £1 million in 2014.
In March 2016 it was announced that Randox Health are to
take over from Crabbie's as officials partners of Aintree's three-day festival,
the highlight of which is the Grand National. The 2016 National will be the
last sponsored by Crabbie's
The course
The Grand National is run over the National Course at
Aintree and consists of two laps of 16 fences, the first 14 of which are jumped
twice. Horses completing the race cover a distance of, the longest of any
National Hunt race in Britain. As part of a review of safety following the 2012
running of the event, since 2013 the start was moved forward away from the
crowds and grandstands, reducing the race distance from the historical . The course
is also notable for having one of the longest run-ins from the final fence of
any steeplechase.
The Grand National was designed as a cross-country
steeplechase when it was first officially run in 1839. The runners started at a
lane on the edge of the racecourse and raced away from the course out over open
countryside towards the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. The gates, hedges and
ditches that they met along the way were flagged to provide them with the
obstacles to be jumped along the way with posts and rails erected at the two
points where the runners jumped a brook. The runners returned towards the
racecourse by running along the edge of the canal before re-entering the course
at the opposite end. The runners then ran the length of the racecourse before
embarking on a second circuit before finishing in front of the stands. The
majority of the race therefore took place not on the actual Aintree Racecourse
but instead in the adjoining countryside. That countryside was incorporated
into the modern course but commentators still often refer to it as "the
country", much to the confusion of millions of once-a-year racing viewers.
Fences
There are 16 fences on the National Course topped with
spruce from the Lake District. The cores of 12 fences were rebuilt in 2012 and
they are now made of a flexible plastic material which is more forgiving
compared to the traditional wooden cores. They are still topped with at least
of spruce for the horses to knock off. Some of the jumps carry names from the
history of the race. All 16 are jumped on the first lap, but on the final lap
the runners bear to the right onto the run-in for home, avoiding The Chair and
the Water Jump. The following is a summary of all 16 fences on the course:
Fence 1 & 17
Often met at great speed, which can lead to several falls,
the highest being 12 runners in 1951. The drop on the landing side was reduced
after the 2011 Grand National.
Fence 2 & 18
Prior to 1888 the first two fences were located
approximately halfway between the first to second and second to third jumps.
The second became known as The Fan, after a mare who refused the obstacle three
years in succession. The name fell out of favour with the relocation of the
fences.
Fence 3 & 19 – open ditch
The first big test in the race as horses are still adapting
to the obstacles.
Fence 4 & 20
A testing obstacle that often leads to falls and unseated
riders. In 2011 the 20th became the first fence in Grand National history to be
bypassed on the final lap, following an equine fatality.
Fence 5 & 21
A plain obstacle which precedes the most famous fence on the
course. It was bypassed on the final lap for the first time in 2012 so that
medics could treat a jockey who fell from his mount on the first lap and had
broken a leg.
Fence 6 & 22 – Becher's Brook
The drop at this fence often catches runners by surprise.
Becher's has always been a popular vantage point as it can present one of the
most spectacular displays of jumping when the horse and rider meet the fence
right. Jockeys must sit back in their saddles and use their body weight as
ballast to counter the steep drop. It takes its name from Captain Martin Becher
who fell there in the first Grand National and took shelter in the small brook
running along the landing side of the fence while the remainder of the field
thundered over. It is said that Becher later reflected: "Water tastes
disgusting without the benefits of whisky." It was bypassed in 2011 along
with fence 20 on the final lap, after an equine casualty.
Fence 7 & 23 – Foinavon
One of the smallest on the course, it was named in 1984
after the 1967 winner who avoided a mêlée at the fence to go on and win the
race at outside odds of 100/1.
Fence 8 & 24 – Canal Turn
Noted for its sharp 90-degree left turn immediately after
landing. Before the First World War it was not uncommon for loose horses to
continue straight ahead after the jump and end up in the Leeds and Liverpool
Canal itself. There was once a ditch before the fence but this was filled in
after a mêlée in the 1928 race. It was bypassed for the first time in 2015 on
the final lap as vets arrived to treat a horse who fell on the first lap.
Fence 9 & 25 – Valentine's
The fence was originally known as the Second Brook but was
renamed after a horse named Valentine was reputed to have jumped the fence hind
legs first in 1840. A grandstand was erected alongside the fence in the early
part of the 20th century but fell into decline after the Second World War and
was torn down in the 1970s.
Fence 10 & 26
A plain obstacle that leads the runners alongside the canal
towards two ditches.
Fence 11 & 27 – open ditch
Fence 12 & 28 – ditch
The runners then cross the Melling Road near to the Anchor
Bridge, a popular vantage point since the earliest days of the race. This also
marks the point where the runners are said to be re-entering the
"racecourse proper". In the early days of the race it is thought
there was an obstacle near this point known as the Table Jump, which may have
resembled a bank similar to those still seen at Punchestown in Ireland. In the
1840s the Melling Road was also flanked by hedges and the runners had to jump
into the road and then back out of it.
Fence 13 & 29
A plain obstacle that comes at a point when the runners are
usually in a good rhythm and thus rarely causes problems.
Fence 14 & 30
The last fence on the final lap and which has often seen
very tired horses fall. Despite some tired runners falling at the 30th and
appearing injured, no horse deaths have occurred at the 30th fence to date.
On the first lap of the race, runners continue around the
course to negotiate two fences which are only jumped once:
Fence 15 – The Chair
This fence is the site of the accident that claimed the only
human life in the National's history: in 1862, Joe Wynne fell here and died
from his injuries, although a coroner's inquest revealed that the rider was in
a gravely weakened condition through consumption. This brought about the ditch
on the take-off side of the fence in an effort to slow the horses on approach.
The fence was the location where a distance judge sat in the earliest days of
the race. On the second circuit he would record the finishing order from his
position and declare any horse that had not passed him before the previous
runner passed the finishing post as "distanced", meaning a
non-finisher. The practise was done away with in the 1850s but the monument
where the chair stood is still there. The ground on the landing side is six
inches higher than on the takeoff side, creating the opposite effect of the
drop at Becher's. The fence was originally known as the Monument Jump but The
Chair came into more regular use in the 1930s. Today it is one of the most
popular jumps on the course for spectators.
Fence 16 – Water Jump
Originally a stone wall in the very early Nationals. The
Water Jump was one of the most popular jumps on the course, presenting a great
jumping spectacle for those in the stands and was always a major feature in the
newsreels' coverage of the race. As the newsreels made way for television in
the 1960s, so in turn did the Water Jump fall under the shadow of its
neighbour, The Chair, in popularity as an obstacle.
On the final lap, after the 30th fence the remaining runners
bear right, avoiding The Chair and Water Jump, to head onto a
"run-in" to the finishing post. The run-in is not perfectly straight:
an "elbow" requires jockeys to make a slight right before finding
themselves truly on the home straight. It is on this run-in — one of the
longest in the United Kingdom at — that many potential winners have had victory
snatched away, such as Devon Loch in 1956, Crisp in 1973 and Sunnyhillboy in
2012.
Part Three coming tomorrow...
Check out what our trialist tipsters are advising at Aintree here > http://www.tipsterstreet.net/trialists.php
Tipster Street.
No comments:
Post a Comment