Becher’s Brook among National changes
The deaths of two horses in this year’s renewal led to huge criticism of the National, and the Aintree executive, along with the British Horseracing Authority, examined every race run over the fences at the spring meeting since 1990 – when Becher’s and Valentine’s Brook were last re-modelled.
The landing side of Becher’s Brook is again to be re-profiled, reducing the drop (the difference in height between the level of the ground on takeoff and landing) from the take-off side of the obstacle from between four and five inches.
The fence remains the same size, but the drop will now be around 10 inches on the inside of the course moving to six inches on the outside, with the difference retained to encourage riders to spread out across the width of the fence.
The first fence remains the same size, but will be levelled to remove several minor contours on the landing side to provide the flattest possible surface, with the intention of giving horses which ‘overjump’ the best possible chance to correct themselves.
The fourth fence is to be rebuilt and reduced in size by two inches to 4ft 10 inches, while the height of all toe boards (the orange boards at the bottom of fences to indicate the ground line) are to be increased to 14 inches, in line with ordinary fences.
It was noticed in statistical analysis that the first, fourth and Becher’s contributed to the greatest number of incidents – 21%, 12.6% and 21% respectively of all falls since 1990 – while the fourth and Becher’s, which is the sixth fence on the first circuit, were highlighted as being more difficult to jump than the others.
Senior jockeys and trainers, as well as the RSPCA and World Horse Welfare were consulted, with Aintree also taking into account the suggestions of many pieces of independent correspondence.
It was concluded there was little relationship between relative speed and the number of incidents, and that the National field size of 40 was also not a contributory factor. Ideas such as moving the site of the first fence were considered but rejected.
The BHA’s formal review will not be released until October but recommendations are set to be made for the creation of a new post-race washdown and cooling area off the course, and to introduce flexibility in the race conditions to allow the shortening or removal of the pre-race parade in warm weather conditions.
