Aintree Changes A Partial Success
Games Guy | December 6, 2011
Sat. saw the first races at Aintree since the latest round of amendments to the course. There were not any major falls in either the Becher Chase or the Grand Sefton, which may have been a relief to both the Bloody Hopeless Amateurs (BHA) and to the animal welfare organizations that have pressed for the Grand National fences to be made easier.
Notwithstanding this, the 1st test of the changed fences was unable to be proclaimed completely successful. In the review of the National course two fences were identified as causing particular problems: Becher’s Brook and the plain fence 2 jumps before it. Regardless of modifications to both these fences in September they were the sole two obstacles to supply fallers in the Becher Chase.
Jamie Stier, director of regulation at the BHA, reminded the jockeys before the race of the changes and the need to ride responsibly. He and fellow director Tim Morris also met up with course officials to discuss progress in communication approaches so the public is kept totally informed of all safety measures in place at the Nation's next year.
Stier said, “We are happy with the way that the fences jumped and the way in which the jockeys rode the course. They rode a reasonable tempo, given the (extraordinarily soft) ground conditions.”
Jockeys and trainers, also , looked comfortable with the changes that have been made, with both Timmy Murphy and Paddy Brennan saying they had not led straight to them having to present their mounts any differently. Aidan Coleman, who dropped from Abbeybraney at Becher’s Brook, was also OK with the modifications. “They’ve done a good job. Due to the public outcry, they were forced to do something and I believe they have just done enough without taking the character away from the place, so fair play to them. I believe that is enough and it should be left like that for good now.”
The day’s racing at Aintree wasn't without incident. The BHA’s other major hobbyhorse of current months, the whip rules, claimed Coleman as their latest victim. He pushed and persuaded Tim Vaughan’s Stewarts House to a half-length victory in the Grand Sefton, but also used his whip 11 times; 3 more than the limit for jump racing, to hold off Paul Carberry riding Linnell.
Stier welcomed Coleman back to the weighing room with the challenge, “What are you going to do to me?” Provocative or what?
In the day’s last race, the Grand Sefton, apprentice rider Shane Byrne got a spare ride on board Pilgrims Lane when Paddy Brennan cried off suffering from dehydration. Nonetheless Milton Harris, who was representing the horse’s trainer, Martin Keighley, claimed that Brennan thought the ground was too soft for the horse, and had refused to ride. “That’s not his decision. It is the owner’s or the trainer’s and we wanted to run,” claimed an angry Harris, before adding that the horse’s owner, Sue Brown, was considering whether to lodge a claim against the jockey. Despite manufacturing evidence from the on course doctor, the stewards referred the problem to the BHA.
Travellers Lane went no further than the third fence. After a sticky jump at the 1st, he blundered again at The Chair, unseating Byrne. Whether it was the change of jockey or the state of the present that led on to his undoing we’ll never know, though no doubt Brennan will point to the early departure of Travellers Lane if he is called before the BHA’s disciplinary panel.
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