Endless Power

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At the Start
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May 2, 2003
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No financial interest in the race but was willing him home from the last. Thought he was going to get caught there for a moment.
 
Fantastic race to watch further enhanced by Richard Hoiles commentary. 'It's Crisp and Red Rum, though this time Crisp holds on'.
 
I fell asleep before the race and actua;;y woke, stirringly hearing Hoiles screaming that, it actually made me think I was still dreaming, then I realised what was going out, for a moment I thought I had fallen asleep and awoken in 1973 !!
 
The commentary was fantastic. I wonder had he that stored away for use when the opportunity arose!
 
Thought the commentary overdid the Crisp/Red Rum connection, 3 mentions on the run in was 2 too many.
 
What I can't understand is how Jim McGrath kept saying he was making mistakes when he was jumping from fence to fence. Low and taking the birch off. The Hollow.... was jumping too big for those fences. I was urging him on all the way up the run in and fair dues to Reveley for giving him a good breather across the melling road when he might have been tempted to open up a distance lead. It gave him an opportunity to fill up the lungs. Great to see things like that and it's why I love national hunt racing. You won't see that over a mile and a half on the flat!!

And must say the slow mo of Gwanako and Same Thomas was amazing. He took off a good stride and a half too early. The horse reckoned he was on a wrong stride and rather than get too close came up too early. Just about cleared the take off board.
 
These one lap races of the National course seem to produce carnage, more so than the National itself.

Less than half the field finished yesterday, and those that did were punch drunk. You might blame the ground, but fewer than half finished in last year's race as well, and the Topham Chase in April was just as bad. Here is what the RP analysis had to say about the Topham:
This is usually a great spectacle, but it made uncomfortable viewing, with only 12 of these experienced chasers standing at the end of an incident-packed affair run at a relentless pace on drying ground. Plenty of the more fancied runners fell, among them Natal, Nacarat, Kenzo and Pak Jack, who were all prominent at the time of their departures, and one must hope that what happened is not a portent for the National itself.
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Good ground or bad ground, it's too hard a race on horses for my liking.
 
Grey said:
Good ground or bad ground, it's too hard a race on horses for my liking.
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Not sure I agree there. Take Southern Vic. Ted was interviewed before the race and said "sure he'll either take to it or he won't". What does that mean? Did he not school him over some National type fences at home? The problem with these sorts of races is that people think that they will suddenly rejuvenate an old character or it is just another chase with a big pot. Which is true sometimes but not always. you need a certain type of horse to win around Aintree as Ginger McCain will testify after Amberleigh won (well he was clever buying him for the race). I think half the problem is that the wrong horses are running in it. Horses that get away with mistakes in ordinary chases suddenly come down too steep over these fences. Most of the falls are from legs going underneath a horse rahter than then making a hash of the fence. And no-one fell at Beechers in the Endless Power race (or at least I don't think they did).
 
The problem with these sorts of races is that people think that they will suddenly rejuvenate an old character or it is just another chase with a big pot. Which is true sometimes but not always.
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True enough.

Last year's Sefton was a 0-135 while this year's top weight, Turpin Green, ran off a mark of 158. Perhaps the change has reduced the number in your first category but increased the number in your second.
 
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