THE THREATS COME FROM THOSE WITHIN

Marathon steeplechase races, to some they are capable of throwing up the most ugly of sights and go hand in hand with flailing whips on horses barely able to keep up a gallop. To others, they are unique and are at the far end of the racing spectrum but have plenty to offer as an entertainment, challenge and spectacle.

And anyone believing that tampering with these races by reducing field sizes, number of obstacles jumped, or reducing the distance will not be the start of a decline down a slippery slope is kidding themselves.

In similar vein to the part neutering of the Grand National, something that puts racing itself with its back to the wall whereby it will be unable to yield any further to this grossly over estimated number that form the sport's opponents if and when bad luck causes a catastrophic renewal, racing has alerted the world that it has an issue with staying chases and is making amendments to them.

This would be the walls of the house beginning to bear cracks that will end ultimately with the structure caving in altogether. In a fast changing environment no one should take for granted that the future of National Hunt racing is secure.

In a world without this discipline, many would turn their backs on the sport from the first week in November to the last week in March. There are other more interesting subjects to occupy the mind than watching horses run around on sand all winter.

Yet, you could be forgiven for believing this is what many people wish for within the sport itself if you listen to and read what is being said by those who should know better and would be advised to think a little before throwing their two bob's worth in.  It shows that the dangers to the sport exist from the modernists within, not these imaginary angry masses on the outside.

Comments have been made saying how unedifying the visual impression is of horses finishing legless in testing conditions.These observations are made as though it is similar to amateur runners near to collapse in the London Marathon, while a more accurate comparison would be those professional athletes finishing in the places behind Brendan Foster with their tanks empty.

We all have our favourite niche marathon horses from down the years. Peaty Sandy in the mud at Newcastle, or the day he won the Welsh Grand National. Jumped around Aintree but could only finish a staying on sixth. Or Jolly's Clump, winning the Brook Bond Oxo over four mile plus at Warwick and for a while going to the head of the ante- post market for the Liverpool race. He finished unplaced behind Rag Trade and was never seen again.

Then the many great renewals of the Grand National itself, a race that became public property and was in great shape until racing picked up a guilt complex about the event, snatched it back, and changed it beyond recognition of the truly great test it once was. It's still the most hard fought, competitive handicap in the sport, but not the Grand National that gave us butterflies in the stomach.

Anyone harbouring doubts as to whether horses can enjoy these long distance races should watch a replay of this year's Midlands National and focus on the runner up Ms Parfois , and ask whether they are they able to convince themselves that the mare is not relishing the action, racing with enthusiasm and looking for the next fence. She finished very tired but ran her heart out and she'll be back show that she hasn't been soured by the experience, - which makes her trainer's comments in siding with the reformists all the more baffling.

Then there is the Welsh Grand National. An institution in itself. This fine race has thrown up some cracking moments to cherish. Future Gold Cup winners like Cool Ground, Burrough Hill Lad , Master Oats, Synchronised and Native River, along with three future Grand National winners successful in the past twenty five years. Then that breathtaking one in a million  performance from Carvill's Hill, and two successive year's victories from the sparse in appearance Bonanza Boy, another Pipe acquisition that the Pond House team worked wonders with.

This is a race often run in testing conditions but is a valuable part of not just the Christmas programme but of the whole season and the sport would be poorer if they started to mess with this event.

There exists hundreds of testaments to show how hardy, enthusiastic and willing many of these equine characters are. Take the admirable Drumlargan, who was in embroiled in one of the most publicised and lengthy whip offence bans in the history of the sport.

A tough as nails gelding, who in his novice hurdle year started favourite for the 1980 Sun Alliance Novices Hurdle run in heavy ground. Partnered by Tommy Ryan, who the previous day had received a £50 fine for his use of the whip in the Stayers Hurdle, Drumlargan was about to go to the front over the last flight when making a bad error. Gathered up, he was chasing down the outsider Farmer when he veered towards the exit chute. Taking corrective action, Ryan hit the horse with the whip a number of times across the face and down the neck. Drumlargan responded willingly, eventually winning the race by two lengths, but received at least another blow after crossing the line.

I came across the Sporting Life  report of the race in my old scrapbook and it makes interesting reading. Curiously, perhaps not believing what he had seen or under instruction not to report the incident to it's full detrimental effect at a time when the anti-racing brigade far outnumbered those of today, the writer stated the horse was hit  "down his neck and on his quarters"  and as was more commonplace when using the whips of old, there were visible weal marks on the horse. The writer, referring to trainer Eddie O'Grady, observed that, "in his opinion some horses mark very easily and that these blows do not always hurt."

To show where he stood on the issue the writer then added his own opinion with a, "some horses do mark easier than others, but to say they are not hurt by such treatment is rubbish."

Curiously, it was reported," as Ryan returned to the winners's enclosure three stewards were waiting for him ",  which conjures up all sorts of images, whether it be the committee in Selwyn Froggatt, to 1950's FBI type characters sporting Fedora hats.

In the Timeform Chasers & Hurdlers 1979/80 Annual, the organisation's chief essay writer got into the debate. He cited Brough Scott's quote in the Sunday Times that the offence  "offended anyone who hates seeing a racehorse treated like a wretched Spanish donkey late for  market", and John Oaksey's view that the riding was a " disgrace to an honourable profession".

The case was referred to the Jockey Club disciplinary committee who imposed a three month suspension on Ryan. Reigning Irish champion jockey Joe Byrne also received the same length of suspension for  similar offences. The Timeform essay writer pointed out that there was no such hullabaloo at Piggott's 'pitiless' use of the whip when wining the Epsom Derby on Roberto, and The Minstrel.

What we do know now with hindsight is that Drumlargan went on to have a long successful career over fences, which lasted into his teens, in which he always showed a preference for testing, tiring ground. He won a Whitbread Gold Cup, was third behind Burrough Hill Lad and Brown Chamberlin in the 1984 Cheltenham Gold Cup, ran in a few Grand Nationals, but  broke a  blood vessels when near the head of the market in 1985.

This Drumlargan case occurred when the anti-racing brigade were in their pomp, at a time when global warming, and dirty oceans with it's threatened marine life, could not have been predicted to cause grand panic on the scale it is now doing.

Hopefully, Aintree 2019 will be covered by the racing broadcasters in a manner that strongly sends the message out that this is a sport that has no apologies to make. If those who think this is the wrong approach to take, they should venture out into the real world and mix with the general populace. They would find to their surprise the image of the sport from a welfare angle is far, far less of an issue, than the struggle it faces in competing against sports that now receive more televised time and are more popular than ever before.