Safer course may keep everyone happy

It might not be the Grand National many of us grew up with, but Auroras Encore’s 66/1 triumph at Aintree on Saturday could prove to be a transformative Grand National, a benchmark renewal that indicates a sustainable future for racing’s most famous contest.

There was a time when the winner's 66/1 SP would have been the Liverpool headline grabber: but not in 2013. For a race under real pressure to prove itself challenging but fair, the most important figure to all but Auroras Encore's backers was the zero casualty rate. The dominant emotion among racing's administrative class must be relief it's all over, incident-free, and with no damning headlines about cruelty dogging the event.

Relief might not be a mood to chime with a mostly celebratory 166-year history in jump-racing’s most famous and challenging event but it reflects how much pressure the National has been under.

Trying to balance the requirement to be seen to be doing everything in terms of animal welfare, while also preserving enough of the Aintree challenge to maintain its “lottery” appeal, has proved to be a high-wire act whose fortunes have swayed and dipped alarmingly over recent years.

It helped on Saturday that even jockeys full to the gills with adrenaline appeared to take account of how half a billion worldwide were looking on in anticipation of controversy and didn’t set off at a crazy early pace. It’s debatable if that sense of responsibility will continue into the future once attention starts to slip but at least there must be some hope that focus may switch from the question of welfare back to the more straight-forward question of simply finding the winner.

If the zero casualty figure was the biggie on Saturday, other statistics for supporters of the historic race were vital too, and it was those that illustrate how the National might still be the National, but yet has become crucially different.

A total of 17 finishers is consistent with other years but it’s the complexion of those who exited that is the crucial factor from Grand National 2013.

Fourteen pull up
The vast majority of horses, 14 , were pulled-up. Six unseated-rider, and one refused. Just two horses actually fell: Tatenan on the first circuit, and Ruby Walsh's mount On His Own at Valentines second time round. And there was uniformity among the jockeys that the newly-designed fence cores made for obstacles more forgiving of mistakes. "I had a good spin but I saw horses surviving mistakes that they normally wouldn't," reported Barry Geraghty, who exited from Roberto Goldback at the last.

Remarkably, the whole field of 40 made it unscathed to the Canal Turn (fence eight) before Treacle became the first horse to exit when unseating Noel Fehily. That is the farthest any National field has got to intact.

The volume of betting on the National indicates the vast majority of people maintain their affection for the race, and a 66/1 winner is just the sort of thing to encourage them to bet again next year. Maybe 2014 will be more rewarding to Irish hopes. Seabass and Katie Walsh faded in the final half-mile to 13th. It was left to Oscar Time to do best of the raiders in fourth.

Auroras Encore and trainer Sue Smith, wife of renowned show-jumper Harvey Smith, celebrated success in typically stolid style alongside their 23-year-old Scottish jockey Ryan Mania. "We're past the stage of partying all night, so we made sure we got to bed!" Smith said. "The horse has come out unbelievably well this morning."

It is bogus to pretend the National won’t cause fatal injuries to horses in years to come. Such promises can’t be made of any race, never mind the toughest of all. But 2013 proved the National can be tough and painless. And that’s something to build on.