Soundings

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32679, 7 August 1971, Page 6

Soundings

by

DEMS McCAULEY

Every year hundreds of Christchurch people who never otherwise think of going to the races troop to Riccarton on the first Saturday of August to see the Grand National Steeplechase. More regular racegoers are inclined to treat them condescendingly, but if anything, the irregulars are the perfectionists among the racing public. For the Grand National is the nearest thing to the perfect horse race. Not for these people the run-of-the-mill Derby or cup race. Only the Grand National (and perhaps the Trotting Cup in November) is good enough. The reasons for the Grand National’s popularity are easy enough to find. For one thing, it usually produces more drama than a year’s television—for example last year’s sensation when Spray Doohe's jockey pulled up his mount when someone shouted that he had missed a flag, then got going again to win brilliantly. Or Mosque’s brilliant win only for his jockey to weigh in light and lose the race to Teak. Also, the Grand National is not one of those fleeting affairs with horses dashing from point A to point. B. There is plenty of time for everyone to see how the runners are doing, appreciate the tactics and watch the fine jumping. And the Grand National invariably produces fine jumping.

The horses that ran in the race are usually all highly competent jumpers, and the race provides them with the ideal opportunity to show their talent. The fences are the highest in New Zealand but, in contrast with other major steeplechases, the runners don’t have to pull themselves out of heavy mud or slog over an inordinately long distance.

Given the good ground, big-fences prove no bother to good jumpers, as Spray Doone showed last year when he whizzed over Cutis’s as if it were a pony hurdle.

So, although I have seen literally thousands of horse races, I will be just as keyed up as all those irregulars at Riccarton about two o’clock this afternoon, for the Grand National remains, even for this relatively hardened racegoer, something special.

This year three previous winners will face the starter, along with a bunch of well-performed younger challengers all with good form and undoubted ability, and the winner will be just as hard as ever to pick. And if you are looking to me for a tip, I had better warn you that I haven't backed a. National winner since Kora! won in 1965. Both the horse and myself have been trying every year since without success, but perhaps the trend will be Reversible today.