David Ord column

Randox Grand National weights: David Ord reaction

By David Ord

Horse Racing

Thu March 20, 2025 · 9M ago

Our man at the Randox Grand National weights lunch reflects on the literal thrills and spills in Liverpool.

On Tuesday I returned to the Randox Grand National weights lunch three years after vowing never to do so again unless the dessert was reinstated on the menu.

Admittedly, the pledge was made silently to myself, but the black-out clearly had some effect – the dessert, a Key Lime Pie, was indeed back.

At the expense of a starter.

And it turned out I hadn’t actually been invited for the previous three years either but hey ho, you claim a win wherever you can.

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Rich Ricci did when he tumbled down a set of stairs on the stage, springing to his feet in a style that immediately rekindled memories of Del Boy in the Wine Bar. Drink up Trig we’re leaving. But Rich wasn’t. He’d learned a couple of new things today, he said, one of which was “Daryl Jacob is the only man in racing who has worse hair than I do.”

Poor Old DJ was sat next to me and taken aback. He’d visited a Turkish barber the day before to look sharp for the event. Expect him to resemble someone leaving Woodstock next year.

The weights were unveiled, everyone bar Sarah Bradstock was happy, she was seething that Martin Greenwood hadn’t given Mr Vango enough weight to have a shot at the prize.

I’m expecting him to be bombarded with similar complaints from both sides of the Irish Sea as he draws the curtain back on the Cheltenham weights in two weeks’ time, chants of ‘we want more, we want more!’ breaking out around Prestbury Park.

No, the one bespoke handicap of the season, where the handicapper has a free hit, is handicapped like it’s a staying chase nowadays. It's a strange old world.

There were other highlights on stage, Ruby Walsh asking Gordon Elliott if Delta Work “was over his hard race at Cheltenham last time”, the trainer taking a little while to respond – and doing so with a hint of a smile.

Delta Work and Galvin over the last

Iroko, don't know how I’ve leaped to him from Delta Work, but they all liked Iroko in the room. He’s having one run before Aintree, but it won’t be at Cheltenham.

And if they liked Iroko, they positively loved Inothewayurthinkin. Everyone. A Grade One horse in a Grade One National, getting weight from I Am Maximus. 12/1, we were in GSI territory here.

Apart from Gavin Cromwell has always seemed lukewarm on the idea to me, not entirely convinced this is the bullseye to hurl one of his most important spring darts at. We’ll see, let the dust settle, and then not back him because he’s 9/2.

It’s another Cromwell and JP horse I like – Perceval Legallois at 25/1. Not that anyone asked. They’ve all backed the two buzz horses, Matt Brocklebank's 100/1 tip Twig, and bunkered back down until the spring.

But one thing that did strike me is just how much the Randox Grand National remains in a period of transition.

We saw videos on the big screen of L’Escargot beating Red Rum, Hedgehunter winning for Ruby and Willie.

There had been changes to the great races between those two iconic moments 30 years apart, but nothing like the ones that have followed in recent years.

The modern National, in which an armada of horses held a chance two out last season, leaves some in the sport cold, including seasoned punters and racegoers.

Then there’s the Irish domination which remains such that we spoke in hushed tones of a double-figure home team this time around.

The Grand National field come home last year

It’s not what it was – nothing is – but fundamentally it’s the Grand National fit for the modern age.

Like it or loathe it, we live in a goldfish bowl, the social licence that allows our sport to continue is only really questioned twice a year, during Cheltenham week and the Grand National.

A vocal, small minority broke the law and took their protests onto the front page and main news bulletins two years ago. It drew battlelines – imaginary ones to many – but one thing we can never do is remove all risk from the race, from the sport, that’s impossible.

Speaking on this week’s Sporting Life Racing Podcast Graham Cunningham said: “I adore the National, it’s my local big race and I will keep that relationship as strong as I can but a sizable chunk of the media and racing fans have bought into the notion that a fatality free National - triumph. A fatality in the National - disaster.

“I don’t want to dance on the head of that pin for weeks on end and for days after the race itself so I will keep my own council. I support the race and still enjoy it but don’t think it’s anything like as attractive a punting vehicle as it used to be, but that’s of lesser importance at the moment than the welfare issue. But the sport dances on the head of a pin with that race and that’s not sustainable in my book at least.”

And to me that brings me to the crux of the Randox Grand National. We need to start enjoying the race again, be as proud of it as the people of Liverpool are. Come out from behind the sofas and celebrate what remains our sport’s shop window.

There will be thrills and spills, not anywhere near on the same scale as in decades gone by, and while it’s different, safer and scaled back in terms of field size, it’s not risk-free, no horse race ever can be.

But it's still the Grand National, it's still Aintree and it's still the afternoon when our sport matters most to the general public.

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