I'm from a horse racing background and I've resisted the urge to engage directly with these people because that way unfollowing and blocking lies. And I like them, I wouldn't follow them if I didn't. However it keeps playing on my mind so I thought I'd write something about it, which they probably wouldn't read.
The Grand National has been run since 1836 and I'd put money on it still being run in 2136. It's a British tradition and gets viewing figures that TV companies can only dream about every other Saturday afternoon of the year. For this reason the BBC clings to it despite eschewing virtually all other horse racing coverage, which it leaves to minority and specialist channels. However the lack of horse racing on the BBC for 50 weeks of the year means that 95% of its viewers have no knowledge of the horses, jockeys and trainers who will be competing in the Grand National, or indeed the ups and downs they've all experienced in the 364 days since that last race. So in the days leading up to the race the BBC launches a massive PR campaign across all its output. There will be features on Radio One, Football Focus, Newsround, The One Show and anywhere else they can squeeze in a mention. And almost without fail these features romanticise past races and anthropomorphise the horses with phrases such as "Friendly Boy loves Aintree". (Friendly Boy doesn't love Aintree, he's a bloody horse. He has no idea where he is or even what his name is.)
And the great day dawns, the BBC has whipped its public into a frenzy and has 8 million people sat on sofas, gripping betting slips and hoping that Friendly Boy, Darling John and Baby Dumpling cover themselves in glory. Then at the fourth fence Friendly Boy falls and breaks his neck. The fall is captured in all its horror by the BBC's airborne camera and on the second circuit viewers are shocked to see the rest of the horses waved round the lifeless body of Friendly Boy, who so loved Aintree, badly hidden under a green tarpaulin. And of course people are upset by this: it's a terrible way for the horse to die.
Horses in the Grand National tend to be around ten years old. This means that people have cared for them, fed them, trained them and loved them for ten years. If ever you hear an owner being interviewed about his horse's chance before a race he will invariably say the words "as long as he comes back in one piece." These people don't want their horses to get hurt. But the harsh reality of horse racing is that it is a tough sport and there are going to be casualties. If the BBC showed racing on the same scale that it did in the 1970s and 1980s its viewers could put the Grand National in context with the rest of the season. But the broadcaster doesn't, and instead shows just the most sensational and emotive race and sensationalises it further.
And what does the BBC do in the wake of the death of two horses in the Grand National? Of course, a feature on The One Show where one of racing's most thoughtful and reasonable ambassadors, Brough Scott, is shouted down by the faded American teen star David Cassidy, of all people. Nonsense like this does nobody any good. Except, of course, those people at the BBC whose bonuses depend on high viewing figures.
If horse racing knows what's good for it, it will take away the rights to the Grand National from the BBC, accept that it is a minority interest sport, and concentrate on its core audience, who understand it and love it for what it really is.
