sport news DOMINIC KING: Corach Rambler's early fall fails to spoil party after victory ... trends now
Picture the scene: it’s the morning of the big race and the executives of Aintree racecourse are gathered for the debrief. Someone explains what is going to happen when the Grand National starts.
‘The field will get away first time,’ the voice begins. ‘But Corach Rambler, the people’s horse and last year’s hero, will get no further than the first fence. He’ll then run down to the second fence riderless and fall there.’
This idea would have left everyone in the room pale. After all the changes were made to make this race safer, the thought of such a popular horse coming to grief at the first moment would have been viewed as a total calamity.
Yet this is what happened. Almost exactly at 4pm, the 32-strong field scuttled over the Melling Road and, in a flash, a bumper crowd of more than 60,000 was gasping in disbelief. Corach Rambler, who looked a picture with a thistle stencilled into his gleaming coat, had departed.
Was this going to be the catalyst for a calamity, an unedifying spectacle that would heap pressure on the National? Not a bit of it. What followed was a triumph for the alterations that were made to the contest, a ringing endorsement for the Jockey Club’s decision to be bold last autumn.
Corach Rambler's bid for back-to-back wins in the Grand National ended at the first fence
In total, 21 of the 32-strong field completed the race, the joint highest figure since 1992
The determination to cut the number of runners from 40 to 34, to shorten the run to the first obstacle by 60 yards, to move the start time and to trim the height of some of the fences was certainly not universally popular. Traditionalists, of whom there are many, were dismayed.
Equally, those who want the race abolished didn’t believe the changes went far enough. After two horses lost their lives in action on Friday,
