Quote: ninearches "Do the fences need to be so brutal though ? I am sure the same distance could be run over normal fences or even hurdles & as has been said the start was a fiasco & Synchronise should not have run. The race is so big in peoples minds that it could stand dumbing down & still make a fortune for the establishment .'"
The do-gooders have actually made the race more dangerous with their meddling in recent years.....Making the fences easier as simply meant the horses go quicker, which inevitably leads to more falls and, with it, more deaths.
The toughness of the fences are not the problem, its actually the number of runners which causes the biggest hazard....Most horses are brought down, or knocked out of their rhythm, by another horse - If you lowered the field from 40 to 30, or ideally 25, you would see less heavy falls and less fatalities.
All of those 40 horses, if running individually, would all complete the course, as the jumping isn't the problem, its the speed of the race and the sheer natural instinct of racehorses to run tightly in a pack which cause the problems.....Heavily watering the course and cutting the size of the field is the safest option.
