RACING | DAVID WALSH
Grand National is too crowded – reduce field to 25 or 30 horses
If welfare is racing’s priority it’s time for it to stop behaving like it has something to hide and take action
The Sunday Times
I drove home from Aintree last weekend not sure what to think about a horse race I’ve enjoyed since childhood. Nicolaus Silver is the earliest memory, a lovely grey horse lighting up the dull shades of a black and white television. Until a few years ago my presumption had been that I was nine or ten when he won the Grand National.
It was the 1961 race, two of the 35 runners travelled to Liverpool from Russia and I was five. Since then there have been 60 Grand Nationals, always a bet and just two winners, Red Alligator in 1968 and Specify in 1971. Those who like a wager are apt to remember the winners and, for a sliver of time, it seemed not that
