Fences Fiasco!

More and more trainers are coming out against proposed changes to the Grand National fences.  Nigel Twiston-Davies (himself a winning trainer) has suggested that the race will end up like a glorified hurdle race and that will be of no interest to anyone.  Personally I think that the media are responsible for this knee jerk reaction - the BBC's coverage at the time was a real shocker...they couldn't have had worse camera angles if they had tried, this in turn led to the media frenzy and the call for the changes to the fences.  It was a terrible shame about the two fatalities and obviously nobody wants to see any of the horses get hurt, but by making the fences smaller, it will only lead to the field going that little bit quicker which will cause it's own problems.

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I see that champion jockey A P McCoy now fancies himself as a bit of a football expert...he has that wrong straight away as he is an Arsenal fan.  It's amazing how a great sportsman in one field can get his judgement so badly wrong in another!  Nevermind, I do agree with his sentiments about the departure of Cesc and how Nasri should be released if he is not happy - an unhappy team member will only upset the ship and they look unbalanced enough at the moment.  With the number of players that are leaving the Gunners, A P might even get a game himself!  Let's hope that the manager spends some of the money he gets and buys a few players to keep the club and fans near the top of the league where they should be.

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Reading through David's column, I was amused to see his comments about Paul Nicholls' starring role in Betfair's new advertising campaign.  Having now seen the advert in question, I can confirm that the Shepton Mallet handler's skills are definitely better focussed on training horses...don't give up the day job Paul!