The Randox Health Grand National weights are published tomorrow. However there is no longer the pre-announcement excitement that there used to be when the weights were framed around previous Aintree form, and not just lifted directly from a horses official handicap mark. It was always good fun reading a trainer having a go at the handicapper for punishing his horse for running well the previous year. Nowadays, finishing in the places in the National is not even a guarantee of getting in the race the next year! As you can see from the 1986 weights, back then only a relatively small number of entries even made it into the handicap proper. It was not unusual on the day of the race for 10 or less runners to carry their allotted weight. Is that a good thing? Arguably yes, as the quality of the race has gone up dramatically. However, marry that to the sanitisation of the course and fences and I’m not sure I will ever experience the tension of waiting for the world’s greatest race again.
BySteve
Steve Bradley is the man behind this project, an unashamedly nostalgic website dedicated to horse racing’s golden days of the past, featuring vintage racecards, clippings and news stories plucked from the newspapers of the day. A devotee of horse racing’s halcyon days from the 1960s to the 1990s, Steve caught the racing bug as a small boy living near Catterick racecourse, where he was lucky enough to see the great Red Rum in action in the 1970s. He has undertaken private research commissions for various figures within the racing industry. Away from racing he enjoys spending time with his retired greyhound, bar billiards, music, TV, films, reading and travel.